Many districts across the country are switching to a new four-day school week. While many may see it as just an excuse to be in school less, it is so much more than that.
Not too long ago, I put out a poll to all of Central Hardin. It was sent to students, parents, and all staff. The question? Should we switch to a four-day school week? If so, why? If not, why?
The poll garnered 156 votes, with 90% of them being students. 141 to be exact. The other 15 were staff, and I sadly was unable to get the input of any parents. Of course, this is only a very small percentage of Central as a whole, so don’t take the results as fact, just a basis for further discussion.
Starting with the results: 134 supported a four-day school week, and 22 didn’t. 14% overall do not support a four-day school week out of this pool of people. If you look at the students and staff individually, you see something peculiar.
Out of the 15 staff that participated in the poll, 13 said they were supportive, and two said they weren’t. That adds up to 13% saying they do not agree with a four-day school week at Central Hardin.
Of the 141 students, 121 said they were supportive, and 20 said they weren’t. That again totals to 14% saying they do not agree. Though this is a small percentage of the school’s population that even participated, these stats should be kept in mind due to their consistency.
Now we will move on to a series of in-depth responses from anonymous responders. Starting with arguments against the four-day school week, a common one was that it would lead to the other days being longer or the school year being extended.
While either of these is likely to happen, both of them happening in full effect is unlikely. The objective would be to bring the amount of total hours back up to what it was, not increase it even more. However, a mix of them could be seen.
On that topic, another common concern was that it would decrease learning. Although, as we have just discussed, times or days will likely be changed, making this argument less sound. Some could argue that the amount students are learning could still be affected, though, just that it’s due to a different reason.
Onto inputs from people who support the four-day school week. Most of the positives relate to a longer weekend, and two main topics come up in this regard.
One: More time for homework. High school, especially, can be heavy with homework, particularly for those taking advanced classes. A combination of one less day to have homework assigned, turned into free time to do the homework they still have; some may argue that this could be very beneficial.
The other common argument for a four-day school week is that it can help relieve stress from students. One Harvard study found that the number of teens and students who suffer from burnout is staggering. It is pretty in-depth, so I’ll link it here, but their results show that a concerningly high number of students face various pressures. More time to not have to worry about school is a suggested solution, although there are likely other ones. The solution you think is best is up to you.
One final note: I also included a question asking if we were to remove a day, which one should we? The most common answers were Monday and Friday. Wednesday was also suggested a handful of times, and there was one answer for Thursday.
There weren’t any in-depth responses for this question, but it is easy to see how the results turned out the way they did. Monday and Friday would keep things simple, while Wednesday would complicate things, and its effectiveness would depend on the person.
