More than 1,600 school districts in the U.S., including 137 of Oregon’s schools, have implemented a system that cuts out a single day from every week according to a study by Associate Editor Steven Sawchuk on Education Week. This makes Oregon the fourth-highest in the country that have used the four-day school week system. The thought of a small school week sounds like a great idea, considering waking up early five days a week to go to a place where you have to learn things you never wanted to even hear about doesn’t exactly scream “fun”. It’s hard to focus on things that you enjoy when you’re stressed out all the time about assignments, future projects, and school in general. Not every student is able to spend all their time out of school working on assignments, and they begin to fall behind without being able to help it. But would an extra day off of school really help?
High school students need a break in between all the schooling and homework, something a little longer than the two days that are usually spent working, rather than relaxing. If the five days were shorter by just one day, wouldn’t that make students feel better about their work and home environments? Probably not. While the prospect of an extra day on the weekend every week sounds like a wonderful idea, the drawbacks of having fewer days to learn at school may outweigh the benefits. According to a report from Lamar University studying the pros and cons of the four-day school week in the U.S., schools that have implemented a four-day school week don’t always see the desired results.
Schools usually have to extend the school hours once the fifth day is cut, which stresses out students, especially those in elementary school. Not only that, but some families struggle with finding a way of caring for their students on that day off because of work and housing situations, home environments, and childcare.
Studies for each school that implemented this system differ widely. A study reported by Paul Thompson, an associate professor of economics from Oregon State University, focused on 137 schools in Oregon that adopted the four-day school week. It showed a temporary decrease in performance, mainly in minority, low income, and special needs students. But four years after this change, not much of a difference from schools with a five-day schedule was found.
It is difficult to draw conclusions from any of the data because of how inconsistent it is around the world. It may be better to leave the school week as it is because an inconsistent schedule would likely be much worse for students, especially during times where students miss much more school due to COVID-19 and other related diseases. To be frank, the answer to the question “Do you need an extra day off?” is a no. But there is room for compromise here. Students don’t need time tacked on to the rest of the days they get, and the stress of transitioning schedules and such would be way too overbearing. So schools can instead try to find time to build in what is called a “passion period” where students are allowed to do work that they are most passionate about under the supervision of a homeroom or study skills teacher. We don’t need less days, we need more time to work on the things that we are actually interested in pursuing as a career path.
