Have you ever wanted a half day in the middle of the week like some students in Europe? Well, could you settle for a 30-minute late start? Every Wednesday, Haverford students are not required to come into school until 8:45, as opposed to the normal 8:15. Why? No one actually knows; the Haverford school just decided to implement this a few years ago with no publicly available reasoning.
In my family, the late start means that my brother gets an extra ten minutes in the morning, though it can disrupt my parents’ work schedules. For the Haverford students who take buses arriving around 7:30, it’s not a gift. For them, the later start time simply means an hour of sitting in the cafeteria until the school building opens while everyone else enjoys a little extra time to sleep in. Additionally, the late start does not affect the length of classes. According to my brother, he benefits from getting a little extra sleep and the extra time to meet with his teachers in the morning.
Other schools, such as St. Joe’s Prep, have implemented an hour-long late start on Wednesdays. Parents and students find this offers a greater benefit than a 30-minute or nonexistent late start. According to the parents of a St. Joe’s Prep student, “Overall, we thought it was great…[I]t did have a positive effect on [our son]. He was much more ready for the day, and usually, [he was] in a much better mood. I think it helped his academics as well.” The parents acknowledged that “[i]t did require some logistics and planning” to make the morning work, but thought that the benefits outweighed the initial challenges. Clearly, there are some benefits to a later start time, especially when the delay exceeds thirty minutes. I believe that it would be wonderful to have a late start on Wednesdays at AIS. A late start would give us a “brain break” with some homework catch up time in the middle of the week, and would lower stress levels. However, the logistics might present scheduling difficulties for parents the school that might outweigh these benefits.
