The constant stress of school being the majority of one’s life is causing students and teachers to question if it should stay that way. People are constantly waiting for every 5-day school week to end but why should they have to worry about that when 4-day school weeks could easily take that stress away? Students and teachers find themselves stuck in an anxiety induced loop while the simple solution of one extra rest or preparation day could fix it all.
An article from NCSL states that “with an extra day to plan lessons, grade assignments and attend professional development opportunities, teachers can feel more prepared and engaged in their work. This can lead to better job satisfaction, which can translate into better classroom performance.”
By having four day school weeks we can see that extra time for planning and grading is beneficial for teachers as it can make for a more improved lesson plan in class. This not only benefits the teachers, but students can also improve in their studies if the lesson being taught is more planned and well thought out.
Kristina Miller, a teacher at Woodbridge High explains in an interview that, “ I think teachers do a great job with creating lessons that are engaging already but I think the strategic placement of breaks could help teachers balance the workload of grading and teaching and their home life as well, cause I know teachers feel burn out in certain months in particular where we don’t have rests and then it can be challenging to bring energy into the classroom from the teacher perspective.” Her view on an extra day shows that from personal experience, most lessons are pretty engaging, but if there was a more strategic placement of breaks in the school year, it could greatly help with balancing home and school life out.
Another article from The Journalist’s Resource describes how, “I think too often the importance of instructional time for the impacts of the policy is missed,” Morton, a researcher at the American Institutes of Research, wrote to JR (Journalist’s Resource).” There are some negative sides to not having the normal 5-day school week being that there is much less time to actually teach the lesson in class. This could put a strain on students’ work habits or learning curve however, this is a solvable problem.
Mitra Tarun, a freshman at Woodbridge High said, “I think some could be that there’s not enough time to teach the stuff that needs to be taught for a test, but I think that could be solved by giving us more work to do as we have more time off, and if they post that we can just get that done the next day and turn it in which would solve that problem.”
This student explains in her words that by having an extra free day, it also gives much more time to complete any work given in class. She says that because of this free day, teachers are able to assign more work so that there is time for a complete lesson plan and students will be able to finish it without having to stress because of the fact that there would be an extra full day to finish it.
Kristina Miller, a teacher at Woodbridge High makes clear that, “I think yes it could, I think that the strategic placement of days off could be beneficial for students especially when teachers and students are starting to feel overwhelmed. If we had designated days that are spread out, then that could be helpful for people to rest and recover.”
She shows how the mental health of students and teachers could be positively impacted by a four day week, as an extra day also provides the time for people to reflect and recover from any stress being put out by school. A four day week can also benefit many overworked teachers or overwhelmed students. Many people struggle with depression and anxiety and while a four day week plan may not solve that, it could partly reduce it.
