— A Drumbeat Debate —
by Roma Rangaswamy and Nika Inashvili
5 Day Week (Roma):
Sure, a four-day school week sounds fun: sleeping in three days of the week, one extra day off school. But let it sink in for a second. It also means much longer school days, extra homework, and, overall, a much busier school week, all to compensate for losing that fifth day. Not as fun now, is it? Schools have to be open for a certain number of hours, which means school will likely end later or start earlier. This shifts our whole day ahead a few hours. The purpose of starting school earlier in high school is to give us more time after school to participate in sports clubs, as well as get our homework done. Longer school days mean that we get home later, which can inhibit us from getting all our work done or cause us to stay up later doing homework. Speaking of homework, in order to compensate for the lack of homework on the fifth, each of the four days we are in school, our homework load will be getting heavy. Those who complain that we already have a lot of homework— get ready for a whole lot more. Another problem starts to draw as we get closer to winter: the sky gets darker faster. In winter, the sunset is as early as 4:30 pm. This can be dangerous for students walking home or those participating in after-school sports.
Let’s get out of just the context of school. How does it make sense for schools to have a four-day week when the rest of the world runs on a five-day one? Firstly, the purpose of school is to help prepare us for the real world when it is time to get jobs. We will be required to work for five days a week, so shouldn’t the school set the example for a five-day workweek? Secondly, schools can’t operate on their own timeline. Consider parents; they are still working, and now they have to make accommodations for their children during that fifth day. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal for us because we can stay home alone, it does affect the younger children in our district who can’t stay home alone. While proponents of the four-day week believe that schools can save money through a shortened week, parents have to spend money on childcare for this fifth day. And many parents would rather their children receive education on this day than be looked after.
While a four-day week seems fun at first, a deeper look at this system will show that it has many holes and proves to be ineffective.
4 Day Week (Nika):
Yes, a five-day school week can be filled with many hours of education. Six to eight hours each day of listening to teachers and doing work that prepares students for the real world. The real world…with taxes, managing mental health, and balancing a work life with a social one. Even an educational one for those who plan to move on to college. However, schools focus on none of these life components. In fact, many students argue that schools give busy work rather than focusing on life skills that will be essential to adulthood. With that, a four-day school week has no time to give any busy work at all. Instead, it will force schools to rebuild their curriculum to focus more on necessary information for their students to know after graduating. Schools would not have to compensate for a “lost” fifth day, as there would not be one in the first place, as there is not a lost sixth day in the current weeks of the school year. Yes, schools could create longer school days if they really wanted to. However, it would be unnecessary to as with a new curriculum, nothing would have to be “made up.” In addition, teachers would not pile up their homework during a four-day week because of the shift in curriculum. If anything, the extra day off would give students the ability to better their mental health because of the extra time they have to rest and reflect. This mental health boost allows students to also get better sleep, which will contribute to better grades and study techniques.
In recent years, it has been said that over nine hundred school districts in the United States have implemented the four-day school week. In fact, countries such as Poland and Australia also began implementing the four-day school week. Though it would be a struggle for parents to provide their children with childcare, New Jersey has no law specifically stating an age to be home alone. Regardless of parents with young children, this is still a relief to many parents, benefiting (rather than hurting) a larger population of people in the long run.
Ultimately, a shorter school week will be beneficial to students as it will give them space to better their mental health and integrate themselves with society.
The Drumbeat 