Wake-Up Call

Health teachers constantly preach the importance of sleep to preps and new lowers: “Make sure to get at least eight hours of sleep. Anything less than nine is pretty bad but still aim for eight hours.”In classrooms during G and H blocks, however, many students are caught drooling, snoring and daydreaming while their teachers and classmates are busy discussing the centroid and Seamus Heaney.Exeter’s teachers claim that students are able to have the full “Exeter Experience” while fitting in a sufficient amount of sleep daily. However, four hours between the end of class and the end of study hours is just not enough to finish five classes worth of homework, compounded with club duties and social life. Sleep deprivation is an inevitable problem among Exonians.Sadly enough, teachers refuse to accept the reality and flaws within our community. Just repeating the phrase “spend your time well” does not teach the students how to manage one’s time. Not only do the teachers fail to accept the harsh truth that Exonians just don’t have enough time to sleep, socialize and work, but many also refuse to comprehend the demanding workload that students receive. Teachers often respond grudgingly to students’ requests for extensions on papers or tests, even when the student may have three major assignments.Because of these unfortunate turn of events, students are forced to stay up way past the 11 o’clock lights out. The next morning, students wake up to alarms that shriek at 7:00 in the morning and walk over to their various classrooms, eyes half-closed. There are even more consequences to sleeping less—students’ performances significantly decrease under lack of sleep. Furthermore, they become frustrated with such decreased performances, leading to an increased tension between the students and the teachers.However, Exeter has to look at the bigger picture. According to a research done by Dr. Siddique, a sleep medicine specialist at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick, NJ, sleep-deprived teens are three times more likely to encounter depression than well-rested teens. If the Academy is concerned about the well-being of the students, there must be change.With the renovation of the health center, the fatigue system disappeared. Although fatigues shouldn’t be an excuse to miss classes, the system with proper regulation can be extremely effective. The health center, when fatigues existed, failed to count how many times students fatigued, so many students fatigued more than the three-time limit. However, when Exonians are overburdened with academics stresses, extracurricular pressures and a variety of personal concerns, we should be able to rest without the added energy of dealing with teachers’ unreasonable wrath for missing classes.Getting rid of fatigues does not solve the problem of students abusing fatigues. Instead, stricter and clearer rules needed to be put in place—Exonians clearly need their rest.Classes at Exeter offer many opportunities to students. However, just like everything else, the Academy must find a balance between work and rest for its students. Exeter must remember that knowledge with frustration and depression is not an alternative to knowledge with goodness. 