The most dreaded day of the week. The most terrible, awful, brutal day of the week: Monday. It takes every ounce of energy within the human body. It is physically and mentally demanding to only be able to rest for two days and then have to go back to school or work. Now, this ever present school work and grind is needed, however how the grind is viewed and the length of the grind should be considered. Shortening to a 4-day work and school week would supply students with the proper amount of time to rest, have time for themselves and to fully commit themselves to their out-of-school engagements.

School is a stressful environment for people of all ages. According to Harvard Summer School, 43% of students who took their survey said they felt stressed about school. The additional stress also has a compounding effect on motivation to do school work, as 45% of students lacked motivation to do school work. With these numbers so high, reducing the amount of time that students spend in school would go a long way in lowering the amount of stress students go through. Having students spend less time in school would give them the opportunity to spend more time doing things that they enjoy, creating happier and less stressed students. Elliotte Banziger, a freshman at Hellgate, speaks of her stress juggling the things that she loves with school. “I do a lot of different extracurriculars outside of class time, which makes it hard to balance school and those at the same time. Having more time to do those things would take the stress out of missing school or not having enough time to complete the school work that I have.”

Students having the ability to take the extra day has been proven to be very beneficial. It has also gotten past the test of being feasible, as school districts all across the country have been able to pull off the 4-day school week. School districts such as Stevensville and Seeley- Swan have already implemented this 4-day week. The results at the schools have been great, as students have reported to be happier and have performed better and standardized tests compared to the rest of the state. 

With such good benefits to having a 4-day week, enacting this plan within MCPS everywhere would create the most benefits for students everywhere. This 4 day work week would work as follows. School would have to start 52 minutes earlier and end 53 minutes later. This will allow for the time that is lost in the extra day to be made up. This would extend each class by about 15 minutes, which sounds like a lot but would allow for each teacher to get the required amount of teaching in order to teach the subject. While this lengthening of the school day is a lot, it has been proven to work and make students and staff happier to be in school. After students and teachers happiness matters most in this world shouldn’t it?