A girl is sitting at her desk, a sigh escaping her lips as she tries to pay attention to the teacher. Everyone else in the class is in a similar condition, dazed and wishing that it was the weekend. Her eyes lock onto the weekly planner on the whiteboard. “To think, it’s only Thursday… It feels so much like a Friday… I wish it were the weekend already.” She mumbles, her words slurring together and her vision blurring slightly as she spaces out. The teacher himself is more monotone today, less enthusiastic about the topic than normal, and he keeps checking his watch, as if hoping for time to fly by and for it to be the weekend
A topic that’s often brought up is whether there should be a four-day or a five-day school week. I think a four-day school week is better than a five-day week because it gives students and teachers time to rest, restore, and prepare for the next school day. Students can get easily stressed around the midway through the week. By shortening the school week, students and teachers could experience lower levels of stress and burnout. The extra day off can provide essential time for self-care, hobbies, and family activities, contributing to their overall well-being and mental health.
“I think we should have a four-day week because children work just as hard as teachers do. Mostly because we get a lot of homework and less time to work on it,” eighth grader Nahla Lott said.
Everyone deserves an extra day off– especially students. Students can get stressed out by how slow the week is going and all the work that stacks up, especially since their brains are still developing and can get easily overloaded. Eighth grader Janell Randle believes there should be a four-day week.
“I think there should be a four-day week because we need more time to study, and well, five days gives us less time to study on our own, and we can still learn with 4 days,” Randle said. “And I feel like four days a week would give us a break and time to study.”
Friday is already counted as part of the weekend by some people, so it would help avoid confusion if it actually is. People enjoy Friday as a more easygoing day, and look forward to the weekend, but sometimes Friday just seems to drag on as everyone waits for it to end.
Students and teachers will have more time to work on homework or lesson plans over the weekend if the weekend is longer, so that they can feel more prepared for when school starts. We already have a lot of holidays on Fridays or Mondays, which leads to more three-day weekends, causing students to be more rested and ready for school.
Eighth grader Kaitlan Lobban also agrees with me, saying, “I think there should be a four-day week, because I would rather have a three-day weekend than go to school for five days.”
Rest will balance out with school so that students and adults can feel more at ease and prepared to return to the normal schedule during the week. It would help people have an easier adjustment from the weekend to the weekdays and help increase focus and concentration during school.
