Education is important but some may argue that mental health is more important. Stress shows itself in many different forms, such as: headaches, insomnia, anxiety, constant worrying, social isolation and the list goes on. Implementing four-day school weeks could benefit students ways.
The Education World found many ways it has positive effects on students such as, “Reduce parental stress, Improved student mental health, improve school climate, improve student attendance, improved teacher attendance, and improved behavioral, and emotional well-being.” So getting a four-day school week is proven to increase students’ mental health, and emotional well-being.
Having four-day school reduces stress, I asked Paislee Cockerham (freshman) if she ever felt stressed in school. “Yeah, because I have a lot of homework everyday.”
Having four-day weeks would benefit more than just students, teachers would benefit from shortened as well. Teachers would have extra time to plan, create, grade be available to the students who need extra help with classwork.
Students have five day school weeks and most of them participate in sports and/or extracurriculars, plus trying to finish all their work before the due-date can be extremely stressful. So when is there time for homework, studying, family time, sleep, rest, mental health practice? The 4-day School Week: Pros and Cons states, “A shorter week can reduce student fatigue and increase engagement during school hours. Additionally, the extra day off can provide students with more opportunities for rest, family activities, and independent learning.”
“We already have enough homework as it is, we only have two days to catch up. So in three days we would be able to kick our work out in one. And we have two days to do other things.” Melina Joy’ 28
Having five-day school weeks is ridiculous, they don’t help students nor teachers. From all the reasons I stated above, it shows how much having four-day school weeks would help students and teachers. In a SweetwaterNow article they found that, “The long school days are hard on students and staff. They struggle to get through the day and if they have activities, these kids are working 1–12 hour days. It’s too much for our kids.” This is showing that having five day school weeks are negatively affecting students and/or teachers.
Implementing four-day school weeks would have many positive outcomes. Having four-day school weeks are shown to increase and decrease many good and bad things that students have been experiencing or going through. It increases the students emotional well-being and decreases many stress problems students have shown to be having. Having full weeks is not worth the time and stress.
