If teenagers can’t be at school at 9am, then it’s a sad reflection on our society

It has been suggested that teenagers should be allowed to sleep beyond the normal commencement time of their school day, as they need this sleep.

I was a war time teenager.

I sometimes attended school after having little or no sleep on the previous night, but I coped, and it should be borne in mind my diet was not so plentiful as it is nowadays.

When I was 12 years of age I was made homeless by the German air raid in Coventry, my father was injured and was missing for several weeks, but my mother, brother and I were found somewhere to live, many miles from my school.

I only lost a week’s schooling, the journey to and from school took nearly an hour each way in bitterly cold weather and thick snow, but I, and so many like me, carried on with our education.

Teenagers have to be made to realise that there is a 24 hour day, many jobs require attendance at non-social hours, and stopping in bed is not an option.

If they cannot be in school at 9am it is a sad reflection on society.

Sometimes my school day went on until 4.30pm and I was given homework, which had to be handed in the following day.

We never had a week off for a half-term holiday.

In fact, I cannot recall such a break.

I left school on my 16th birthday, I did not attend university because my parents had no finance to support such a venture.

I started work when I was 16 years of age, my parents told me if I did not work I could not eat.

When I retired I was a university librarian.

I studied in my own time at my own expense, and I did not stop in bed to catch up on lost sleep unless I was ill.

I am made of the same flesh and bone as these teenagers, I do despair when I consider the present generation.

Hard work never killed anyone.