Imagine having to balance school, homework, a job, chores and perhaps even taking care of younger siblings, all while having five days a week, six hours a day taken up with classes and instructions. While it may be functional for some, for others it can bring about problems with schedules. Home life and school life often clash together, making it hard for some students to find time to do schoolwork.

However, the prospect of only having school four days a week rather than five has been brought into consideration, after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed off on the idea of school districts having the choice between 180 days or reaching the equivalent of that in hours. This would result in extended school days, and the school calendar would be dictated by the number of state-mandated instruction hours. There are many reasons as to why selecting a four-day school week may be the more convenient route to go.

For instance, the temperature of the school during the beginning and toward the end of the school year heavily impacts students’ attention spans, as well as the quality of work. Students might have trouble concentrating, considering how uncomfortable the hot temperature can be.

The temperature also has negative effects on the well-being of students, as some have to make trips to the nurse’s office to combat light-headedness or exhaustion from the heat. These trips, in turn, can cause students to fall behind in work, as they are losing class time to work on it and not staying up to date on their teacher’s instructions. Four-day school weeks would give students a break from the heat, instead of having to deal with it for five days in a row.

Another thing that four-day school weeks would combat is the attention spans of students. By the end of the week, many students struggle to pay attention in class and tend not  to try as hard on in-class assignments. The off day will require less energy to be spent, and less burnout from the week considering there are only four days taken up.

Having more time to work on homework and other after-school activities goes hand-in-hand with this idea. Having four days of school rather than five days gives students more time to work on large projects or study for tests. Having an extra day off would enable students to have more time to spend on assignments without having to feel rushed or worried that they won’t have enough time to complete them. 

On top of this, kids who work after school and over the weekend have a larger workload than others, and they may not be able to find time to get all of their schoolwork done if they have to worry about their jobs and maintaining good grades. If students have one less day of school, it will be easier for them to maintain a healthy work-and-school balance.

This also applies to students who work on farms and have to assist with farm chores. Freedom Area is a significantly rural district, so many students run into this problem. If there was one less day of school, students would be able to help their families with chores as well as keep up with work in school.

Four-day school weeks would benefit the community in drastic ways. Students would have more time to devote to larger projects, students who balance work and school will have an easier time doing so, and students would not get as exhausted with the four-day week schedule. Students would be more productive, and the extra day off would also give them something to look forward to at the end of a modified week.