Shorter school weeks do have many problems, but also many advantages . There are many benefits to a shorter school week. Such as less stress on students and staff, more time for students to complete homework, and easier to have enough staff also saving money and attracting teachers. This helps schools and students become more efficient and have better morale. 

One of the benefits is it puts less stress on students. A recent study done by researchers at Stanford shows there is a significant decrease in stress because 56% of youth say that homework is one of the most significant source of stress. With more time on homework they have less stress. Additionally, having more time to  study for tests puts less stress on students. This allows students more time to get help when they struggle with homework. Lastly, students and teachers don’t feel burnt out so quickly in the year. 

Another benefit of a shorter school week is it makes it much easier to staff schools. Staff members don’t have to work every single day and districts save a little bit of money by not having so many people there five days a week. Teachers are less stressed with more time to grade students’ work. Staff members are less burnt out and are able to come back to school the next week. 

Schools with shorter school weeks have better overall morale. When they are out for that extra day they have time to relax making them more productive during the school day. Additionally, attendance has improved especially for athletes who may have to miss a day for activities they get that extra day to complete make up work. 

Mrs. Schneider, the 8th grade English teacher for team Cimmaron said, “In my opinion shorter school weeks would be better because you get more time to catch up on things if you fall behind or were absent one day. One of the downsides would be you would have to be in school longer than we currently are”.  

A shorter school week sounds like an A+ for students and teachers, but there are many downsides to it . Such as having less hours may put stress on some students as they would have less time to learn and comprehend the same material they can be taught on longer school days. Also it is not just harming students it is also harming parents. 

Some downsides to a shorter school is that it affects students’ health in many ways, like now kids don’t have 5 days of PE they only have 4. If kids with 2 day weekends stay home and play video games,and eat junk food imagine how much longer they are going to play video games and eat junk food. It is affecting parents so much because now since their kids are staying home one more day their expenses are going to skyrocket by costing them 5-9000 more dollars than they would with a 5 day school week.

Another downside is that students have less of school. You might be wondering how having less hours affects  stress on students when they have a 4 day school week. Also they do not learn as much as kids with 5 day school weeks meaning that their brains may be under developed when they are older. The students could have stress for being behind 2 – 7 weeks compared to the kids who go in 5 days a week.

Tyler Lord an 8th grade student at Rio Norte said that he would like having a 4 day school week. He said because he plays baseball he would have an extra day of practice. Also he said that it would be good because he would have more time to do homework. Jullie Haris one of our  Campus Supervisor here at Rio Norte says that even though she thinks that if we had a 4 day school week it might lower her pay she said she was fine with that because she would have another day off.

In conclusion, although there are many benefits, the cons outweigh the pros. Due to students with shorter school weeks not progressing along as fast as students with five day school weeks because they get about 60 extra hours in school per year. Also it makes it inconvenient for low income families who have to pay that extra $5,000 to $9,000 per year on the care for the child. Also they have to figure out who will take care of them during work days. Although it remains up to the districts to decide what to do.