School hours run from 8:55 a.m. to 4:25 p.m., fashioning long days for ninth graders to twelfth graders alike, rendering an essential eight hours of their day circling school and only a few hours to spend at home.

Johnson High should be able to end school earlier to allow students to have more time to engage in their outside life rather than being bound to school for long periods of time. 

A lot of students on the campus of Johnson take part in extracurricular activities, and these activities require long hours, time, and energy. This can either be volleyball practice early in the morning before school begins at 7:30 a.m. or later in the day after school has already ended, for instance, theater students who have rehearsals running until 8:30 p.m. So even though school may start later, which may come in favor of a lot of students, it ends really late as well, and whenever people have these kinds of responsibilities to do after or before school, it takes up more of their time than it should for a mere high schooler. 

Extracurricular activities aren’t the only thing that occupies a lot of students’ time; some students, even freshmen, have part-time jobs, and so whenever school ends late in the afternoon, they have no time to go and catch up on rest at home before they have to get ready and begin their shift. 

Homework also tends to take up a lot of students’ time, filling in the hours they were given to relax at home. However, if the school hours were shorter and school ended earlier, kids may be able to cram in their responsibilities after school and still have a good amount of time to do what they want.

Even students without extracurriculars come home late. Most bus kids don’t get home until around five in the afternoon, some six if they’re taking a late bus. Some seniors don’t even get outside of the parking lot until five due to long lines for parent pick-up.

Johnson students have family waiting at home that don’t even get to see their kid that often during the week due to the prolonged hours, and not being able to spend that much time with them because they either have homework or something else to do. Sometimes even fatigue gets in the way and their kids are too tired to hang out because of the long day that cycles five days a week. Statistics show that university-educated mothers spend only two hours a day with their children while fathers only spend 85 minutes, and this is only if the child does not have anything to do after school. 

Long class hours do benefit in a way, however; more time to finish your work during school and the nihility rush. This reduces the pile of homework that would most likely be tenfold if classes were shorter. But homework is not the only thing that suffices students’ time after school, as part-time jobs and extracurricular activities breach kids time as well earlier stated, so it doesn’t benefit much compared to inconvenience. 

With all of the extra responsibilities that take up students’ time after school and how long school runs, the hours of Johnson High School are extremely grueling and barely allow their kids to have a life outside of the campus. Johnson should impose shorter hours for a more refreshed and content student body, as mere high school students need more freedom and time and fewer binds.