Question

I will write my argumentative essay on: High schools should start later in the morning.

Thesis: High schools should begin no earlier than 8:30 AM because later start times improve teenagers’ sleep and mental health, raise academic achievement, and reduce teen driving accidents — benefits that outweigh scheduling and extracurricular challenges.

What do you think is the strongest point for people who disagree with you?(2 points)

Answer 1

The strongest counterargument is logistical disruption — later high-school start times create serious scheduling, transportation, and family-work conflicts. This can be framed as two linked points:

1. After-school activities and student responsibilities suffer: Pushing the school day later delays sports practices, performances, and part-time jobs into the evening, leaving less time for homework, family duties, or sleep and making students’ evenings more rushed and unsafe (late-night travel, less adult supervision).

2. Costs and community-wide ripple effects: Changing start times often requires reworking bus schedules (sometimes needing more buses/drivers), forces elementary and middle schools to shift their schedules, and can conflict with parents’ work hours or childcare arrangements — imposing financial and logistical burdens on districts and families.

Those practical, system-wide drawbacks are the main reason opponents argue the benefits of later start times may not outweigh the real-world harms.