As young as five years old, children have been going to school five days a week for most of their lives. While five-day weeks are better when it comes to establishing a consistent routine for children, more schools are starting to make the switch to four-day weeks for multiple reasons.
Four-day weeks allow for school districts to save money. The trend of switching to four-day weeks started in smaller school districts due to their lower funds and need to save more money. One less day in the week means one less day of lunch, supplies, teacher and staff salaries, etc.
With one more day added to the weekend, students are allowed more free time. An issue students, especially teenagers, struggle with is trying to balance school life with their work and personal life. It’s hard to find time for all three and if students can, it’s most likely costing them their sleep.
The question of if students are getting enough sleep has been a concern for the past few decades. Getting 8-10 hours of sleep is very important because sleep deprivation in students can lead to multiple physical, mental, and behavioral issues, ultimately making an education for these students harder.
In regards to four-day school weeks, studies have shown that students in this system end up getting more sleep than students with five-day weeks. With improved sleep, students are able to get better grades, be less moody and become more alert cognitively.
Besides sleep, this extra day off can be a day for students to focus on their other activities outside of academics. Take sports as an example: schools have been moving their athletic activities to this day off so that athletics don’t interfere with academics as much as they would in a normal school week schedule. Along with the ability to do activities, students can also use this extra day to work and make more money for themselves.
Another benefit to this extra free day is that attendance is shown to be better with four-day school weeks. Most students and teachers have had to miss school for appointments during five-day school weeks but with a four-day school week these appointments can be scheduled during the extra day off. This makes it so students wouldn’t have to be behind as much in school and teachers won’t miss as many lessons.
However, four-day weeks have their drawbacks when it comes to education. In studies, it’s shown that students who go to school four days a week have slower progress when it comes to learning. This doesn’t necessarily mean that students aren’t getting a good education, though. In fact, the extra day off can allow students more time to complete their homework, study, and get tutoring.
But there’s also the concern that with these days off, school days and years are going to need to be extended. In specific states, they require a minimum number of days a school year. In North Dakota, this minimum is 175 days. Although, in the past it’s shown that lost days don’t always match with this number.
Typically, when we exceed two snow days, the school year is supposed to extend as well. But during the past few years, we’ve been allowed to exceed these two snow days without a longer school year. Why? Our school days are long enough to eventually make up several extra days. This same situation applies to four-day school weeks. Without Fridays, school days are going to have to become longer and summers will have to be shorter.
But in the end, it’s a question of whether longer school years are more beneficial than longer school weeks.
All in all, four-day weeks are a good alternative . While this system would technically mean less time being in school in the short run, I believe that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A longer weekend break will give students extra time to recharge and be extra ready when Monday morning comes around. With all that being said, four-day school weeks can be beneficial for the lives of children and the school districts that implement this.