Seven days a week. Five days we go to school. Two days we do not. Every day for five days, we tirelessly study, work, and participate in extracurricular activities. Then Friday comes around and we have the weekend – two days of no school to recover and then back to school on Monday. A constant cycle that gets disrupted only if you’re sick. 

What if we changed the school schedule? 

Imagine we have four days of school and three for the weekend. School would start at 8 a.m. and end around 5 p.m. This may sound absurd but, would extending school by two hours really make a difference? Longer classes, a longer lunch, and a little more time to get from one class to another. Work hard for four days and as a reward, you get a three-day weekend. Why a three-day weekend? One day for hanging out with friends and doing fun stuff, another for doing homework and being productive, and the last day to just relax before the start of the vigorous week. 

This would benefit not only students but parents as well. Ending school at 3 p.m. isn’t always practical for all families. Many families struggle with finding ways to pick up their children because they are also busy working. Students in elementary through high school often have to figure out routines for every day after school. Whether it’s after-school childcare, sports, or clubs that they don’t have an interest in but have to or going over to a friend’s house until their parents are off of work. By ending school at 5 p.m., there are no worries for parents about how their child will get home. 

A four-day school week and a three-day weekend are very different from traditional schedules and have their costs and benefits but the benefits significantly outweigh the cons.