The pros of having a four day work week far outweigh the cons. A four day work week would not only increase the productivity of workers massively, or 40% in the test that Microsoft did in Japan.That much more productivity is better than an extra day of work, but I believe it would also increase the worker’s motivation to have four day weeks instead of 5 day weeks. People will be more happy going to work knowing they have to work less total time, and have more time to do what makes them happy, encouraging them to work harder and better. The first con that comes to mind would be that there is one less day to do work, but when you think about it, it doesn’t matter. The 40% boost in productivity is more than enough to make up for that one day loss. One of the other disadvantages would be that work time pay based jobs would pay much less, as people would be working for less time. Another logical argument against a four day work week would be that some jobs pay their workers based on the hours they work, and the shorter week pays the workers less. While this is true, the companies could start paying more based on the worker’s productivity, and not the hours they work. This would end up paying workers about the same as they got paid before, making the downside unimportant to both the workers, and the owners of the companies.
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I think a 4 day week would be way better for kids and adults. Microsoft Japan has already proved that it increased productivity by 40%. Imagine if every business around the world did this. It has also been proven that people have been way happier. There is no point that everywhere around the world does not change to 4 day weeks. Also for school people might be able to finish school earlier and be more educated.
I agree 4 day work weeks instead of 5 day week would be better. Microsoft Japan has proven that 4-day work weeks are more productive than 5-day work weeks. The work ethic was proven to be 40% higher when working for 4 days than 5 days. Having workers that work 40% harder for 4 days a week would exceed them working 5 days a week but not as hard. Some say, having a balanced work life and free life is very beneficial to our mental health. Only working for 4 days a week would help us in this sense. People would work harder because they know the weekend is coming soon. Others would say skipping an entire day of work would be terrible because they wouldn't get paid as much. I see both ways but personally think a four-day week would be better.
I agree that 4 work days instead of 5 would be better. In Japan, Microsoft has proved it would work by increasing 40% of productivity. Some say the balance between work-life and a “happy” life is very important. By making it a 4 day work week we could benefit the workers in a positive way making them feel motivated with the knowledge of having less stressful hours ahead. A slight disadvantage some may see is missing a whole day of work could cause less hours meaning less of a money flow. In my opinion I believe that it would be beneficial to all and would cause more enthusiasm towards school and work.
I believe that the school and workweek should be 4 days instead of 5. Microsoft Japan has proven that it increases productivity while only losing one day of work. A 40% increase in productivity is massive, and far outweighs what would otherwise be just another long week with average productivity. With a 4 day workweek, productivity all over the world would skyrocket. The economy would grow. Mr. Hunnicutt is right; I would rather have a lower pay with less hours I have to work then more pay with an overwhelming amount of hours. Finding a strong balance between work and break is a strong approach to find perfect productivity, and we know that now.
Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? I think that I would spend more time doing things that I like and less school means it will help the teen depression. Because one of the main causes for depression is school.
I think school should be four days because Friday is basically the end of the week.
I think that it should be 4 days because we finish faster and we can do homwork on the 5th day
I think they should because it gives students a break from coming to school every single day and that way they can relax and not worry about schoolwork
@Weldin agree
I think that it should be 4 days but also 5 days if needed.I think we should be able to have 4 days. with this we would have more weekends. we can be stress free. but if you don't do the work you will work on the fifth day.
In my opinion it should be 4 day instead of 5 because in the article "shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent.''
In my opinion I think that the school week should be five days because we learn more information and less slacking around but according to some other students they want more days off cause they are tired and want to spend the time sleeping.
i think the week should be 5 because it starts with monday which you really don't feel like doing anything but as the week goes bye it gets easers and easers and then bye friday you can go throe the day like it's super Essie.
i think that the week should be 5 because we have more time to sleep and you can finish your work to if u have any also u can spend more time with family and other things
@kevin portillo i agree
Honestly i think the week should be 4 days instead of 5 because i think it could have a lot of benefits, first you won't have a lot of school time which means not a lot of work time which means more time you can relax and not be worried about to much work from school, second is basically the same thing, with 4 days in a week instead of 5 you won't have to work a lot so it can be easier for you to get on track and not have to much work to do, third is spending time with your family, with less work days you can spend more time with your family and even your friends.
@Joshua Lopez I agree zone out a lot
I think a making a week four days is good so we can get more time for spending time with family, and would make it feel normal instead of feeling that you live in school.
@Ethan santos agree
@Ethan santos I agree to your statement
@Ethan Santos me too
yes so we can have a longer weekend to relax and jot many days of school
@Angelica Cifuentes, I agree with you
I think that making the week 4 days is beneficial because it improves people's happiness and gives them an extra day to relax. Even though some work time might be lost if people have an extra day to relax and reset they might get that work done faster during the time they do go to work. My life would change because I would not have to go to school for a full 5 days and it would give me another day to go through homework and other things I do outside of school. This lets us balance our work and life.
In my opinion, school and work weeks should be shortened to four days to increase productivity and a healthier work-life balance for everyone. As the article states, a company that implemented a trial run of a four day week saw a 40% increase in productivity as well as increased overall happiness of employees. Employees were finishing their work quicker while being more inclined to complete it. Some other benefits of a shortened week, for school specifically, would be an increase in sleep, less stress of homework completion, and more time to be a kid. People might see following a four day week schedule to be an insufficient amount of time to earn enough money to sustain their current lifestyles. In actuality, the younger generations, like myself, value following their passions, interests, and family over money and material things, leading to a happier lifestyle overall with the shortened work weeks. Work shouldn’t be a chore to do every week. With shortened weeks, many people will most likely feel more motivated to go to work because they know they can push through a four day week with sufficient energy instead of a five day week where they may be struggling to be productive. Overall, I believe a four day work and school week would help increase productivity during the day as well as give people a chance to find a smarter and happier balance in their personal lives.
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Four day weeks would be far more beneficial for everyone rather than five day weeks. Not only would this option benefit students but it would also help teachers, four day weeks would allow everyone have a catch up day to catch up on missed work or even to get ahead. This would allow teachers to do grading and lesson plans on these days too. Also, productivity levels would go up as kids would have time to catch up on sleep allowing their brains to function better. Along with more sleep there would be a decrease in sicknesses because students will be better rested which makes their immune systems function better. Another reason as to why there should be four day weeks, is it allows an extra day to do things such as sporting events, clubs, etc. instead of trying to squeeze them in after school and work. Therefore everyone would benefit from having an extra day during the weekend.
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A four day work or school week would be much better than the current five day format. Work would be more productive, people wouldn’t be as tired, and stress levels would be down. I think that if we had a four day week and had Wednesday be the off day it would prove these benefits. Having a day for workers or students to take a break would then improve their work for the rest of the week, and also before the Wednesday break because they would be looking forward to it. Also, people wouldn’t suffer from lack of sleep as much because they could use the Wednesday to sleep in or relax. This would also result in lower stress levels because we would be given a day to compress or just not think about school or work. While I’m unsure how we could get this to happen, I hope someday a four day week is implemented into society.
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I think the school and workweeks should be four days long instead of five days because having an extra day off helps with stress and there’s more motivation to finish the week on a high note. If we only went to school for four days a week I would be more productive because I’d know I would be able to do whatever I wanted after those four days of working hard, and yes I would spend more time doing hobbies. I see work as a means to end because without hard work your not really going to get anywhere in life so it’s important to prioritize things like school. I also agree that I am more focused on balancing out my social, work and school life so I would rather have a job that pays less but get to spend more time doing what I want.
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In my opinion, a four day work week could potentially be better than a five day week, if executed correctly by companies and schools. Some proven advantages to a four day work week are increased productivity and efficiency but there could also be underlying benefits such as more jobs. If people are only working 4 days a week, companies might want to look for other employees to fill those hours in. That being said there are a couple problems with a four day work week. The most obvious problem is companies not wanting to pay the same amount of money for less hours of work. I think there needs to be a solution for problems such as this before countries commit fully to a four day week.
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I think school and work companies should get a four day week instead of our normal weeks. I think it would cause less stress for students having more homework and a break from exhaustion for workers, and knowing that they get an extra day off might motivate them to get work done faster so they can get a break and do what they enjoy.
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In my opinion I think that school and work companies should get a four day week instead of a five day week. Five days of straight work and labor can be so exhausting and by the end of the week everyone is mentally and physically tired. If we change to a four day week I feel there would be an improvement in the school systems because we would get a longer weekend, which means more time for kids to get a mental break and a physical break from having to be stuck in a classroom for 7 hours a day everyday for five days. It would improve people's mental health because students get really stressed out about school and the amount of work that is put on them and it can eventually cause depression and anxiety. I believe that a four day week will be a good thing for everyone and improve people's lives.
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I think that we should have a four day week instead of a five day week. It would raise the productivity of the following week while being able to relax more on the weekends. Right now I spend my weekends relaxing, exercising, hanging out with friends and family, and working. But on Sunday I have to take up to three hours doing my homework from that previous Friday. The three day weekend would give me more time to do the things I love to do. Our country needs to change its mindset. There are so many things in this life more important than work or good grades.
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I do not think that schools and other companies should try a 4 day work week. The entire reason that they were 40% more productive is because they had to be. They were probably scrambling to get all of their work done before the end of their very short week. What will happen if this is implemented into schools is we will constantly be behind. The problem is not productivity in school, it is the amount of content that needs to be covered before the end of the year or semester. We would end up having a longer school year or longer workdays. And even if we did not have longer days or years, the quality of the work would go down because we would be rushing to complete assignments and not be behind in our studies. I already work hard in school and have plenty of time to rejuvenate myself for the next day. The R&R is not a problem, people work because they have to in order to get the work done before the deadline.
I believe that there are many benefits to a shorter workweek. The article talks about the importance of being balanced. With a shorter work week there would be time for families to spend together. Often I go through the weekend and Saturday your preparing for the weekend and Sunday is spent getting ready for the next day of work/school. An extra day would allow us to enjoy time with our family and loved ones. Work isn't everything. You must put an emphasis on family as well.
I believe there is never an end to work. As soon as you think you are done, you receive more work to do. By work I don't just mean having a job or being in school, but I also mean doing simpler tasks like helping a friend out or making breakfast. So I believe that in our lives sometimes we work just for the sake of working, such as when you are participating in a hobby that you do just because it is fun. Most of the time we work to achieve something, such as a paycheck or even a thank you. Some of the things we receive also connect to things that we are striving for such as a high-paying job. So overall I believe I work just for the sake of working but I also work to achieve things in life.
I believe the value of changing our workweek to four days instead of five depends if you have a fixed salary or not. It would probably become a nuisance to workers with hourly pay because workers who rely on the usual forty hour workweek would lose a big part of their income. However, I think it would be productive for workers with a fixed salary because it promotes mental health care and also gives them more time to spend with their family. I also think a four day school week would be beneficial to students, but only if it lined up with the parents workweek. In conclusion I believe a four day work week, if implemented correctly, would be productive, but if it was implemented in a disorganized way it would have negative results.
I believe that a four day week is better because you would have more balance between your home life and work. I think that a four day week and a three day weekend would cause less stress for people and people are likely to be more productive when the work week is shortened. I also believe that people need more time to spend with family and to just relax. If there was a four day week the stress levels for high school students would decrease. The extra day would allow students to spend more time with family and friends and also not have to worry about the workload of school and the pressure that students feel from teachers. I know that this will not be put into effect while I am in school but I think it will happen in the future and positively affect future generations.
@Andrew Gonthier I think that would be nice to have a four day week but if you think about it, it would make school longer into the year and it would be harder for people to make money or just be able to fit jobs into a smaller time frame
@Andrew Gonthier I agree with you. I think that if we had a three day weekend it would benefit everyone. We could spend one of those days working on homework and studying which would raise the productivity of the following week. And the other two days could be spend re-charging, spending time with family and friends. It would make the stress levels decrease in students and adults.
If I was allowed to only go to school four days a week I know for a fact that my life would have a complete change for the better. With less line spent sitting in class and less time spent slaving over the homework, I would spend my time being productive. For example, I would finally have the time to get a job, Join the National Honors Society, work out, and spend more time making meaningful memories with my family and loved ones. “Millennials and the generation that follows, Generation Z, also seem to be driving a broad shift in priorities when it comes to work, focusing less on pay and more on balance”(Proulx 2019 paragraph 12). I somewhat agree that Millennials are more focused on balance because I would much rather prefer feeling balanced in life than having an abundance of extra spending money.
@Isabella Hileman I agree with you when you said that it would change my life for the better. I think it definitely would because like you said, we would have more time being able get a job, join school clubs, and have fun and make more memories with family and friends.
Personally, I believe the workweek or school week should only be four days instead of five. During the week, students are bombarded with papers, homework, and tests. This commonly creates a plethora of stress an anxiety to the point where perhaps the work that is being done isn't for accuracy, but more so for completion. Students are more worried about the consequences if their work is turned in late and accurate, rather than having it done on time or copying someone's work just so it meets the deadline. In the article is said that “ a poll conducted last year by The Workforce Institute, a think tank at Kronos, a maker of 0-work force management software, found that 34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day workweek compared to 28 percent who were happy with a five-day one” (Proulx, 2019, para. 8). This goes to show that people prefer a shorter work or school week. It can greatly reduce stress and overall create a positive impact.
A four day week, now that is an idea I can get behind. I think that a four day week sounds like a great idea. This would not only allow for a better balance between work and life, it also would make workers more productive
A four day work week would not only be good for the employee, but also for the employer. Employees would get more time over the weekend to recuperate from a weeks worth of hard work, and the employer would be provided with a more productive staff.
I know you’re thinking how could less time working make the staff more productive, wouldn’t it do the exact opposite, but that is where you would be wrong. It has been proven that a four day work week makes employees more productive, “Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent.” This research not only allows us to see how a shorter work week would benefit us, but gives the employer a justifiable reason to make the work week shorter. Now instead of I made the work week shorter because it is good for my employees, Chief Executives can say “Well, actually, I’m not just doing this because it is a good thing for my employees, I can also do this because it is good for business.”
So all in all a four day week would be an improvement for everyone. Employees get more breaks and a better balance in life, and the higher ups in business get a group of workers who are 40% more productive than they used to be.
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Personally, I do think that the school and workweek should be four days instead of five. Having a shortened work week would motivate employees to worker harder and faster, and allow them to have more balance in their life. I truly believe workers would be much happier if they had a four day work week. According to Niraj Chokski, “34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day workweek” (Proulx, 2019, 9), employees would enjoy coming to work much more if the workweek was only four days. I believe that the advantages of a four-day workweek outweigh the disadvantages by a lot. A shorter week would greatly improve productivity, in fact, Microsoft states that “shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent” (Proulx, 2019, 3). Some people may be angry because both employees and employers would be making less money, however, this would give people more time to spend with their friends and families. Overall, workers will be much more productive and happy with a four-day workweek.
I think a school/work week should be put into place due to the positive effects that it has on everyone. According to the New York Times article about this topic, “Four days instead of five-- and found that productivity in the company improved by about 40 percent.” (Proulx, 2019, 1). Based on the results of this study I believe that the four day week should be put into place due to the increase of the productivity level and what happiness it would bring to the students and employees. Some advantages of the shortened week is that everyone would be happier and they would want to work harder because they are being rewarded by having that extra day off. Some disadvantages of the four day work/school week would be that the hours may be longer and more work may have to be accomplished in order to not get behind. In my opinion I think the pros outweigh the cons because of the studies results. Those results show that productivity was increased immensely and due to that I don’t think many would mind having to stay late or come early a few days as long as their work was done and they got that extra day off.
The week should be four days instead of five. The four day week would allow adults to have more time to focus on their home, family, and outside work activities. It is normal for a family to be very busy during the week. The four day week would allow them one extra day to catch up with the things they need to do. Microsoft Japan tried out the four day week and “found that productivity at the company improved by about 40 percent” (Proulx, 2019 para. 1). This shows that companies can actually improve from the four day week. This would also help with students at school because they would have more time to settle down. It would also help them get more time to study, do homework, or get tutored. A four day week is a great idea and everyone should be looking into it.
The week should be four days instead of five because it would help us as a student as well to have more time to finish our school work or study for a test if there is an upcoming test or quizzes, My life would be so much better if i only had school for 4 days because I would have time to prepare myself for upcoming topic that we will be discussing in class and have more knowledge about it. It would also help me manage my time for school work or life outside of school.
Shortening the week to four days instead of five has incorporated many benefits. In the article it mentions that, “Microsoft Japan made headlines recently after it tested a shortened work week — four days instead of five — and found that productivity at the company improved by about 40 percent” (Proulx). Some countries have actually tested this idea and it has shown incredible results. It allows kids to get a school and home balance, during this time they could relax and even get some of their homework completed. Therefore having a four-day-week seems like a good topic to discuss to the board of education in several other countries. It’s working for Japan so why not here!
Some advantages in shortening the week to four days would be the increased in productivity levels, this would support the school, students do academically better and that looks good for schools. A disadvantage could be, “Some barriers are institutional and some are cultural. And then there’s the most human reason of all: inertia” (Proulx). Although this is a wall to break I honestly believe that it could be broken. Meaning let us not give up our hope because of a small stick in out path. In my personal opinion, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages so shortening the school week to four days should be a consideration.
I think that the idea of a compressed work week should be supported because it supports mental health, which has become a big deal recently. Families are exhausted and are always at school/ work or sleeping. For kids, they have school, cocaricular activities, homework, and for some, also a job. This is a lot to balance and it is very complicated. Pair that with no time for family and friends and you have a perfect remedy for anxiety and depression. Kids still need time to be kids and a four day week would help that tremendously. Kids would have more time to be social and have family time, both of which are mandatory for mental health. Suicide and mental health issues and undoubtedly plummit if children had more time to simply relax and enjoy some free time. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has mental health issues as a result of stress implemented by an intense daily routine. Now if I told you that there was a perfect solution to this problem- exhaustion relief created by a lightened work load with a compressed week- would you not argue for it as well? The main presented problem is that schools fear that students would get less done, but with research in places where this already exists showing up to 140% productivity,that problem disappears If a world where suicide rates are low and mental health issues are obsolete and teenagers are happy is your goal- which it should be- then a compressed work week is one step closer to this goal; a very big step.
If there was shortened work days or school days throughout the week, we can definitely see pros and cons of this situation. The pro’s would be less stress, more time to get things done, flexible schedules, more time to relax, and more attendance at work/school. The cons of having not having a shorter week is that there would be less time to work on certain things, more stress, less time to relax, less productivity, and worse attendance. The pros outweigh the cons because having more time to work on certain things would significantly reduce stress of all ages. In the article it said “34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day workweek” (Proulx 2019 paragraph 11) with the article saying that, it seems like more people worldwide would prefer to work only four instead of a five day week. It would also benefit myself because I’d have more time to work on school instead of rushing to get work done because I have work right after school. Everyone would agree with carrying this out, everyone here and then would enjoy some time off to go enjoy ourselves. We all need a getaway so why not start with this one?
Although some say that a four day workweek or schoolweek would increase productivity, I believe it would be stressful for workers and students. For those without a fixed salary would be losing the money they could have earned the other day. Japan tried the four day workweek, but what jobs did they try it on? If it was fixed salary then I would hope it would increase productivity due to less working hours. But If it wasn’t a fixed salary the person would earn less money which would add stress to the household. If a four day workweek is stretched so that more hours are worked in day, you also risk injury and illness. Someone working 12 hours a day would begin getting fatigue which increases mistakes. This has the potential to be bad for the employee and employer. In my experience I have worked up to 10 hours. By the end of the day, I am exhausted which degrades the quality of my work. I have also worked a day where I have only worked 6 to 7 hours. My work is faster and my work has a higher quality. In regard to a four day school week, it would be stressful for parents because if they don’t work a four day workweek they would have to find someone to watch their kids during the weekday. This would require paying a daycare, something that some families can not afford. This adds stress because some children can not be at home by themselves. A four day workweek and schoolweek is not not only be stressful, it would not be beneficial either.
I think companies might benefit from a shorter work week, it would give people more time to recover from long hours of work and possibly increase how hard they work when they get back. My mom works long hours every week, she can be grumpy for being overworked and i think if she was able to get more time off with the same pay her well being would be much higher.
A study conducted by Microsoft Japan showed that a four day work week increased productivity by 40% in the workplace, not school. Other people around the world have also experimented with this idea like the trail Perpetual Guardian did. The owner, Andrew Barnes even said “You’re not just getting the same productivity, you’re getting higher productivity.” On top of that an experiment in Sweden shows that nurses who worked 30 hours spread out over a week had a better well being than those who worked 40 hours a week. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business says that less hours of work might not be implemented in American business any time soon because employers are unwilling to experiment with less days a week from little evidence shown that it would help the companies make more. If there were tests like the ones shown in the article I believe more companies would be willing to try and possibly have a win-win situation like some of the test results show.
I think companies might benefit from a shorter work week, it would give people more time to recover from long hours of work and possibly increase how hard they work when they get back. My mom works long hours every week, she can be grumpy for being overworked and i think if she was able to get more time off with the same pay her well being would be much higher.
A study conducted by Microsoft Japan showed that a four day work week increased productivity by 40% in the workplace, not school. Other people around the world have also experimented with this idea like the trail Perpetual Guardian did. The owner, Andrew Barnes even said “You’re not just getting the same productivity, you’re getting higher productivity.” On top of that an experiment in Sweden shows that nurses who worked 30 hours spread out over a week had a better well being than those who worked 40 hours a week. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business says that less hours of work might not be implemented in American business any time soon because employers are unwilling to experiment with less days a week from little evidence shown that it would help the companies make more. If there were tests like the ones shown in the article I believe more companies would be willing to try and possibly have a win-win situation like some of the test results show.
I believe that school and work weeks should be four days instead of five because there could be many different positive benefits for the mental stability of our society. I think if law put in place the four day weeks, teens in high school would benefit from stress loss. We face many issues with the pressure from our parents and teachers about our school work and other things, and the weekends seem to be the only time that that stress goes down a little. Having an extra day would leave two days of relaxation and fun and would keep one day designated for catching up on school work or getting ahead or even just having family time. I think that the pros of this week schedule out way the cons of loss of school days and work hours. Nixon talks about the effects on the employee happiness and work-life balance, which I think people of all ages can relate to. I think that a four day week would benefit our society greatly.
Being an athlete and a student, this idea of a shorter work week sounds very promising as a new way to flourish in society with the amount of time I can use to be better prepared for the next day of class or next practice. Many Americans that work long hours everyday for 40 hours a week could also benefit from this cut in job hours. Better stamina for working, improved productivity like the japan study showed, and a better attitude towards their job. Which could be good for businesses with customer interaction like checkout lines at retail stores or supermarkets. Many people hate their jobs and dread going to work everyday, but with a shorter week people can catch up on sleep and catch up on work for the next day.
Being an athlete and a student, this idea of a shorter work week sounds very promising as a new way to flourish in society with the amount of time i can use to be better prepared for the next day of class or next practice. Many Americans that work long hours everyday for 40 hours a week could also benefit from this cut in job hours. Better stamina for working, improved productivity like the japan study showed, and a better attitude towards their job. Which could be good for businesses with customer interaction like checkout lines at retail stores or supermarkets. Many people hate their jobs and dread going to work everyday, but with a shorter week people can catch up on sleep and catch up on work for the next day.
Seeing the title of the article filled me with joy. As a student I feel as if schools push students too hard. We try our best to do well but it’s just not fusible to juggle our work as well as everything else in our lives. If the education system doesn't want to fix the curriculum they should at least give us an extra day to do the work. In the article it mentioned that the overall work productivity increased about 40% after they tested the 4 day week. If there is a clear margin of improvement then it can't hurt to try it out can it? Our society deserves the leisure time to process the events and information in our lives. Without digesting we will never retain any information.
@Lily Elbel I also feel like the content in the five day week is a bit stretched out. Going to school itself is the most difficult part of school for me. I think that allowing students and teachers a four day week rather than a five day week would benefit everyones' composure, productivity and overall happiness.
I think school and the workweek should be four days instead of five because it helps bring balance in both health and workload. One advantage of a shortened week would be a decrease of mistakes happening. Another advantage would be an increase of the economy.One disadvantage could be a possible increase of laziness in school and work due to more free time, some people may procrastinate. Another disadvantage could be the newer generation taking the four day week for granted. In my opinion, I believe the pros outweigh the disadvantages. For example, Mr. Barnes argues that “it is making it safer for chief executives, for boards, for companies around the world to say, ‘Well, actually, I’m not just doing this because it is a good thing for my employees, I can also do this because it is good for business’”(Proulx, 2019). Four days for work and school allows for the psychological possibility of people being able to make more flexible time with tasks and themselves. This helps decrease the likelihood for mistakes and is good for business. This also relays to my claim that an increase will go up in the economy because due to the rectification of balance between home life and work, the more people want to work because they know they do not have to work as hasty so they will have more time to work harder at one task at a time instead of rushing.
America prides itself as one of the hardest working countries in the world. To labor day in, day out from 9 to 5 and for five days a week. But at what point do you work too much that it gets to the point of inefficiency?
The United States has had the same workweek since the 1920s under businessman Henry Ford. This was due to the technological innovation in manufacturing paired with trying to increase worker happiness. In all this time, we have had the invention of the cellular phone, the computer, and automatic manufacturing, yet have not decreased the workday for the past century.
This 9 to 5 culture has finally reached the point of irrelevance in the lives of America. Not only for working adults but students too. Students have started to attend school for longer hours and longer school-years. These long hours have decreased student happiness and productivity. Fellow students have heard on and on from their friends about how they don't want to go to school. America has some of the highest hours in school. Despite this, our education system is falling further and further behind. This enthusiasm needs to be rekindled in America. Shortening the school week could help fix student enthusiasm. Students can spend their free time being better prepared for the next school-week with confidence.
@Jeffery Austin
I think I speak for all of the students in the american school system when I say that I completely agree with your statement. Adults are working long hours every day to support their families, but sometimes that is not enough and they must work two different jobs. perhaps one during the day and one during the night hours, which decreases the amount of sleep that are receiving which can have a negative effect on their health. This also includes students, though we do not have two jobs a day we still have copious amounts of homework every night on top of the 7 hours of school that day. some homework lasting students long hours into their night. having a negative effect on their health as they are still growing, and when the students come in the next day tired. They fall asleep in class and then get punished for their work last night.
@Jeffery Austin
I think i speak for all of the students in the american school system when I say that i completely agree with your statement. Adults are working long hours everyday to support their families, but somethimes that not enough and they must work two different jobs. perhaps one during the day and one during the night hours, which decreases the amount of sleep that are receiving which can have a negative effect on their health. This also includes students, though we do not have two jobs a day we still have copious amounts of homework every night on top of the 7 hours of school that day. some homework lasting students long hours into their night. having a negative effect on their health as they are still growing, and when the students come in the next day tired. They fall asleep in class and then get punished for their work last night.
@Jeffery Austin I absolutely disagree with you. The school week within the American school system does not need to be shortened. We do not need to spend less time in school, and there’s a multitude of reasons why.
For starters, we need to learn. One way or another, by the time AP exams roll around, I need to be able to get a 4 or above. By shortening the school week or school day, all we do is force the same amount of information to be crammed into my skull in a smaller time frame. Unless you’re suggesting we implement a year round school system nationwide, it would be immoral to place academic constraints upon those of us seeking success merely because other students are unmotivated.
As a student, I believe that a 4 day school week would be much more beneficial than a dragging 5 days. Now despite what you may think, this is not because I want to be able to hang out with friends on the new day off. It’s because I know what it feels like to be so overwhelmed with work, your mind stops doing it's job. And what good does that do? As a student, a mental health day/ a day of rest would greatly improve my mental status and my ability to think clearly, leading to higher grades and better test scores, which lead to a brighter future. As Natalie Proulx stated, Microsoft Japan said that “[they] found that productivity at the company improved by about 40 percent,” (Proulx, 2019, para. 1) when they tested a 4 day week rather than 5 days. There is proven evidence that giving employees an extra day improves their work. Doesn’t everyone want better work? As my dad says, quality over quantity. Anyone would rather have greater quality work rather than employees doing the bare minimum because they have to.
@Kaylie Loughry
That may be true for jobs because they already know what they need to do because of school. if school was shortened then what where would all the work from the 5th day of school go? It would most likely be piled on as home work or they might skip important information because teachers weren’t able to fit it in the four day week. If they give homework that would stress me out because it would probably be a lot more than normal and what if the lessons they skipped ended up being useful for the future. Don’t get me wrong I like a long weekend but what about the possible consequences that might come with it?
@Kaylie Loughry I agree, most weeks I just simply want to give up. I just want one...more...day of relaxation. Or just a day every week to sit down and do all of my work. I mean, how are we supposed to function =under so much stress? As students we suffer from extracurricular, parental, and plain old school stress. A four day school week sounds beneficial to me.
If Microsoft Japan sees improvement of forty percent shouldn't we try it?
If I went to school for four days a week instead of five, my life would change a lot. I would have more time for sports, friends and family, and other activities. My social life and school life would become more balanced. I would also become more productive in school because I would be more focused. Since my new schedule would allow more time for other activities, I wouldn’t have to worry about them during school. My generation, according to Chokshi, “also seem to be driving a broad shift in priorities when it comes to work, focusing less on pay and more on balance” (qtd. in Proulx, 2019). If life balance is taught in school by having four day weeks, then this balance will exist in students’ work life. Generation Z is already prioritizing this over pay, so enforcing it in school will only help them in the future.
A four-day weekday is far more greater than the traditional five-day one. This is said because an extra weekend allows an opportunities for a full rest that would eventually result into more productivity. Students or employees may become less stressed if our weekdays were to vary. It also enables possibilities of catching up on assignments if one was unable to do so and bonding with family or loved ones even more. This one out of many advantages as to why it would be beneficial to have a four-day weekday instead.
Yes, I do believe that shortened work week would be very beneficial, at least for students. Students, such as myself, get very burned out by the end of the week, praying for it to end. As Microsoft Japan tested, the four day work week increased productivity by 40%. “The four day work week is like the flying car of of labor, as a society” (Proulx, 2019), weve been talking about it for almost half a century but nothing is really being done about it. I feel like for the good of the students and their mental health, that the school week should be shortened to 4 days.
Some of the advantages of a four day workweek would be increased productivity, and as Mr. Barnes said, “Well, actually, I’m not just doing this because it is a good thing for my employees, I can also do this because it is good for business” (Proulx, 2019). This idea of a four day work week can also have some downsides to it as well. In my opinion, I feel like it will mess up the economy, because if people are working less, people are making less money, so people should be spending less money.
Despite the enticing premise of a longer weekend, the concept of shortening the school week to four days is impractical and should not be adopted by Americans. Although the four day workweek might be acceptable in a specific business setting, such as the Microsoft branch in Japan, applying a four day week to an institution such as the education system would not result in many benefits for students. The school day would have to be a few hours longer, which would limit time allotted for after-school jobs and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, a shortened school week would limit class time significantly. It might seem as though teachers cannot expect as much from their students on the basis of a four day school week, but, in most cases, limited class time does not imply a limited workload. This concept is especially true for AP and concurrent credit classes, which grant students college credit and a challenging curriculum. Therefore, a four day school week would result in even more homework for overworked, exhausted students. According to a 2014 study conducted by the University of Phoenix College of Education, the average high school student is potentially assigned 17.5 hours of homework per week. If the school week was shortened to four days per week, students would be forced to complete even more assignments outside of school. And, with a longer school day, students will have no choice but to complete most of this homework on their coveted three-day weekend.
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@Gavin Miller Wow! This is a point of view that I really agree with and did not see before I read this comment. I see now how a shorter work week would result in more work out of the class thus resulting in having to spend that precious time out of school doing work.
When I am home I like to read for fun, watch television, or just do whatever when I have the opportunity to. I do not like doing work out of school because I find myself easily distracted. Japan adopting this shorter work week might work for them because that is a work environment. Students go to school to learn information so I can definitely see how us student adopting this way of life wouldn't work out as it has for Japan.
I think that the workweek should be shortened to 4 days instead of 5. The research has proven that this can be beneficial to workers and to the business itself. There has been trails done such as one in Mirosoft Japan that shortened its week day to 4 days and saw their productivity rise by 40%. As is says in the article, “But the Perpetual Guardian trial last year and the test conducted by Microsoft Japan this year focused on a benefit that might motivate employers: productivity”(Proulx, 2019). This productivity is extremely helpful for the employees but even more so for the businesses who see growth in this company due to this change. Businesses would be wise to use the information they have to help their entire business grow and profit.
My initial reaction is that I think it would be more beneficial to students and teachers to have a four day workweek. It would help us all not feel as drained and it would without a doubt make our lives a lot better. A huge advantage of a four day work week would be that we would all get more sleep and we would definitely not dread school or work as much as we already do. A disadvantage and also my main concern is that teachers would give us double the amount of work we already have and make our whole weekend filled with homework which would literally defeat the whole purpose of a four day workweek. I think that this would change my life in such a great way. I would definitely be more productive in school because it would motivate me a lot more. Also I would be able to spend more time out of school doing the things I love. Overall, I think that this will help everyone be happier and a better person.
Part 1: I do not want my school week to be shortened. I take 4 classes a day for one and a half hours each, and I know for a fact that a four day school week would not work. Much like the shorter work week, some compromises have to be made. Compromises that should not have to be made.
I have a 7 hour school day three days a week. 8 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Stacked on top of my extracurriculars, I could not possibly form a functioning schedule for my life without making sacrifices. In the article, the author mentions two different methods of executing a 4-day work week. One entails maintaining the 40-hour work week(or in my case 37), and the other requires the hiring of more employees to make up for the missing of hours. Neither of these would work for me.
If my 37-hour week is maintained, it would mean my school day would be increased by an hour. That’s an hour more of classes in which not much would happen due to student and teacher fatigue, an hour less time for homework and extracurriculars, and an hours less time to relax and enjoy myself. All this means that I’ll have a harder time studying, effectively lowering my performance in school. I’ll have a harder time fitting in all my many extracurriculars unless I do them all on Friday, effectively nullifying the purpose of having a day off, and most importantly, I’ll have less time to hang around doing nothing, lowering happiness overall.
Part 2: The second option presented would quite literally be impossible. I can’t possibly have shorter weeks. Any less school and I wouldn’t know nearly everything I needed to by the time exams roll around, and I can’t exactly have someone fill in for me. There’s no plausible way to shorten a student’s work week without shortening our breaks astronomically which could be possible, but will likely never happen.
Now, I don’t know about adult’s work weeks. It might make them more happy. It might make them more efficient. The evidence supporting that is questionable and, in my opinion, needs more support. Two or three examples of a successful implementation of a shorter work week does not seem like a viable cause for changing the current system, but I’m expecting more examples will show up over the course of the next few years. What I do know, however, is that the four day week would not be optimal for me, as a high school student.
Having a shorter school week would make a world of difference. We only have two days of rest and relaxation and as soon as it starts I already feel like it’s almost over and I can never get over that. Five straight days can really start to break you down in terms of happiness. In the article, they write about how the workers increased productivity because they had less days, that is definitely because they were happier than normal and were trying to do work. The point of the four day week is to make people happier and (potentially) increase productivity.
I think school should reduce to 4 days instead of 5 because school and social life can be more balanced. If school was 4 days a week it would give kids and teens more time to relax rather than stress build up. With a 2 day weekend most people have fun on saturday and sunday is for school, church, andchorse which only allows one day just to relax and have fun.
I am not the only one that feels this way according to the article “about ⅔ of workers favor a compressed workweek.” The workers care less about pay and more about a balanced life. If salaries stay stable with 4 days it could really help with mental illness in the workplace too.
The week length should be changed from 5 days to 4 days,but only if salaries remain stable, because it increases productivity and is easier managed by workers and students. Because the change worked for Japan,America should try it. Although,the change from 5 to 4 days transition might be difficult,the overall workforce and students will be more productive and motivated to work.The change would increase productivity:people are exhausted by the end of the week and they cannot bring themselves to perform well at their job or school,then the weekend is so short that they do not have a chance to recharge after their long week. As a student, my weeks always feel like 6 days because I do my homework on either Saturday or Sunday.This constant attention on school leaves students with only 1 day of rest,resulting in them not feeling motivated for the next week. A 4 day week would help the lack of motivation by allowing for more rest, thus an increase in motivation, which would result in an increase in productivity. Changing the week from 5 days to 4, would be the best for productivity and motivation of workers, the change should not be made if people’s salaries are changed.Whole lives are planned on the salaries of working class people,a financial strain should not be placed on the stressful lives of working class just because people might believe that because they work one day less, they do not deserve the same salary.Therefore,the change from 5 to 4 days a week should not be changed.
Having a compressed four day work week can help people get work done and look forward to a long three day weekend. Microsoft had a “trial” with a four day work week and it actually improved productivity by 40%. The days would include more work and extend to longer hours but I think is is worth it for the three day weekend. Many people however disagree with a four day week because they think it is too much and school/work would extend to after hours to be able to get more work done.
I think that officially making the workweek 4 days long is an overall bad idea. Many people are accustomed to this 5 day workweek schedule, and changing it would throw everything off. No matter how short the week is, there will always be the same amount of work that is needed to be done, so it will just make the 4 days even more overwhelming. Even though experiments have shown that productivity increased in a 4 day week, we cannot expect it to stay that way. It’s just like when a new fast food location opens up: the entire parking lot is full of people waiting to get their food, but then a month later, the same place is practically empty. The 4 day week would soon become familiar, and people will want even shorter. How far should we go? The workweek used to be 6 days long and we changed it to 5. Now people want to make it even shorter! We can’t get rid of work entirely, but that’s where we’re headed if we keep making the week shorter. Don’t get me wrong, I (like everyone) would love to have less work or less time at school, but in reality that can’t happen. Whether we like it or not, the same amount of work will be there no matter how short the week is. People have jobs to make money so they can survive; better yet so they can live. Getting rid of their work, or making it considerably shorter, would definitely affect this. Instead of trying to make work shorter, what we should really be doing is trying to make it more enjoyable. The 4 day week is definitely a dead end!
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Many would lean towards having 4 work day weeks, although for others, that would break or interrupt a routine that has been practiced for years. People have been accustomed to working 5 days a week with 2 day weekend, which they’ve also based lifelong schedules on. Revolving to 4 day work weeks would mess the timeframes many people are used to. For example, those who work may have to worry about losing hours from their jobs. Shorter weeks would mean shorter hours. Yes, many are fond of the idea of having more time for personal matters or leisure, but there are those who put most of their worries on how they support themselves with their livelihood. Many would have to adjust and create new routines to accommodate 4 day work weeks if it were to happen.
@Renz
I disagree that changing the schedule around would cause a huge difference in routines because a lot of classes have extra time at the end of the class and this extra time could be used to fit in more for that week. Also with holidays, there is oftentimes 4 day weeks throughout the year and on these weeks business goes as usual. Also, hours would not take a hit because schools are required for a certain amount of days each year so there would still be the same amount of days therefor the same amount of hours.
@Carter Moses I believe they should reduce the days and if that means more hours than so be it. But if teens and adults can get 1 more extra day of freedom it can help with mental illness in the work place and or help relief teens from stress. IT also allows extra time on the week to do work you are behind or forgot to do.
I think there should be a shorter week because if it improves work ethic, then it’s all around beneficial.
Personally I know I would be happier with less weekdays.
I do not think that a 4 day week would be better than our 5 day one. For school, we would have to make up the 8 hours we would be missing each week so our other 4 days would likely be extended by 2 hours. This would cause all of our classes to be longer and not give as much time after school for extracurriculars and homework. Although we would get an extra day off at the end of the week to make up for it, I think the school schedule works best how it is now over 5 days so were not overworked all week.
The article talks about all the benefits for adjusting the work week to the 4 day schedule, like boosted performance and higher productivity, but doesn’t really address any of the negative results. Stress levels would likely be higher during those 4 days and so would exhaustion. If we were able to just remove the hours from the 5th day like they did in one of the studies, then a 4 day week seems like a great idea, but just rearranging the hours for one less day seems like it will have more drawbacks than benefits.
@Skye Solomon I definitely don't want the school days to be extended by another 2 hours. I barely get enough sleep as is. In my heart I think that having a 4 days week over a 5 day week would be much better since I am already working on the weekends anyway. However all this would do is make classes longer which mean more homework. Those 4 days would be a gigantic struggle to get through which makes the whole thing not worth it to me.
I do not think that a four day week will be an effective way to educate high school students, or help the productivity as a whole in US companies.This article shows many of the benefits that are associated with having a four day workweek, but only lightly touch on the many problems that come with it. The main one being overuse and exhaustion. It is interesting to think that by shortening the workweek employees and students could possibly be overworked, but with these shortened weeks, you can definitely expect longer hours of work. These longer hours will lead to more exhaustion, throughout the short work week, and I believe will lead to working less efficiently and doing a poor job.
I am a high school student and when it gets close to the end of the day I am done. By that point, I am already thinking of going home and resting, or how much more stuff I have to do after school with my sports. I can hardly think, or finish my work. This may just be me, but I couldn’t push through any more hours of school, or at least by doing good work. I also think that the amount of homework that teachers would give us would increase as well, with there being less days to spread it out. Also, after school activities, would be impacted, because it would be so late, and because of the amount of homework.
The article shows the positives and says that a company in Japan has seen a 40% growth in productivity, but I don’t think that that would happen in our schools.
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We should have a five day week instead of a four day week. Sure some might say that a four day week is better because you have more time to do the things you need to do, and you’ll have more time to relax or do the things you want to do. That may be true, but that whole reasoning is wrong. A five day week teaches us how to manage our time, and learn how to maneuver around or through things. If we have a four day week, whether we think it or not, students (maybe not all) will see a three day weekend as more time to procrastinate. The way our school system is set up, we wont be able to achieve or do all the things we need to do if we only have four days. Based on past experiences and current ones too, some teachers complain that they weren’t able to do everything or teach everything they wanted to teach us because the year or the day is too short. What more if we make it four days long. Therefore, we should keep having a five day week instead of a four day week.
On October 24, 2018, the C.N.M.I was drastically hit by Super Typhoon Yutu resulting in many schools and government buildings being damaged and houses wrecked and destroyed. For about two months, there was no school and our government had gone bankrupt. Many people who worked in government offices experienced budget cuts, resulting in less paycheck money. But of course, our amazing teachers stayed by our side, throughout the time. If school were to be shortened to four days rather than five, it would not only be beneficial to staff members but students as well. The government wouldn’t have to worry about paying extra bills for the extra day, teachers will have time for their family and work, and students can begin to take part in extracurricular activities or get a job. Although the hours of a school day may increase to ensure that a child is receiving the education they need, the extra day could be used to accomplish all work assigned to them. Personally, I would use the extra day to volunteer at the hospital or even spend tome with my family. The options are endless. There may be many who would not be in favor of this extra day because the child’s needs (of that day) would come out of their pocket. But a shorter week can lead to more savings.
Personally, I would like having a 4 day school and workweek, but that would bring a lot of changes. Even if people seem more productive on a 4 day workweek, we would still have to put in more hours of school and work a day. I feel like the 40% increase in productiveness would eventually wear off, leading to people working late hours each day in order to keep up with work and school. Even so, I think I would be more productive in a shorter school week, and end up getting more sleep with a longer weekend, which would help as well. When it comes to having a work life balance, this would definitely help because it gives you more time for your family. If someone is a hard worker, I think that they could always work an extra day to get the pay that they want. I personally wouldn’t want to work overtime, but I don’t know exactly what my future will hold, and if I will need or want the overtime money in to future or not. I’m still a student though, and for students an extra day for the weekend would really help them get everything done and be prepared for the next week.
@Jackson Bruins
Your statement saying that the productivity of workers is temporary might be true, but they might be having to do the same about of work as if it was a five day, that means that the 40% increase is temporary but it will definitely cause people to work harder.
If going to school was only four days a week, students will be more productive. Niraj Chokshi states, "A two-year experiment found that nurses who worked 30-hour weeks spread over five days were happier and healthier than counterparts who worked a typical 40-hour week." Going to school for five days a week can sometimes be tiring, especially for high school students with jobs. Not only will the employed students benefit from the four day week, but also every student will be able to have enough time to study, do homework and enjoy some free time. My daily routine would be completely different if school was only four days a week. I would complete all my homework on the first day, hang out with friends on the second day, and prepare for school and study on the last day. Having three days of no school will emotionally, physically and mentally prepare a student. Knowing that there is only four days of school will make students happy and less tired. Being well rested and happy will boost the student's energy and make them more focused.
@Kenisha Revised Comment: I feel that we should have a 5-day week. Believe it or not a 3-day weekend is a long time off and students tend to forget what they have learned when they have come back. It is important to keep their minds stimulated throughout the 5-day week.
When it comes to studying as well I don't think that having a 4-day week would give more studying time for students. It is really about time management when studying the material, whether it’s a four or five day week. Students can still not perform well on tests because the week is short and they have to cram if they didn’t time manage and study throughout the weekend given that extra day
Material in the classroom and the curriculum that a teacher has to teach to his or her students will shortened as well in a four day week. Students will have to move faster learning the material and the teachers will have to as well. It moves quickly already and taking away a day will not make it any better. It won’t give the students a chance to truly understand the material because they have to move from one concept to the next because a day is taking away from the week.
It may be cliche to say this, but I definitely think the week should be four days long instead of five. Just thinking about it, many people have to do extracurricular activities during the week and weekends. They possibly have no time to enjoy the weekend, and this is coming from experience. So, if they do they can have at least one day to enjoy or relax. Not to mention, it is also a win-win situation for teachers and students if you go to school. It's less work for the teachers and less school for the students!
• Mr. Hunnicutt also argues that Millennials and Generation Z seem to be prioritizing work-life balance over pay. Does this ring true for you? In your future career, would you rather have a job that pays you a lot but requires more working hours? Or a job that pays you less but offers you more time off? Why?
Most people, including Millennials and Generation Z, prioritize work-life balance over pay. This is also true for me as a high school student with work experience. In my future career, I would rather have a job that pays me less but offers me more time off than a job that pays me more but requires more hours. Although it is more beneficial for me and my future career to work more hours for an increase in pay, I would still much prefer to have more time off. This is because having more work hours reduces time for me to really do things I enjoy. For instance, I have a myriad of books I would love to read but never have the time to do so, having more time off would provide me the opportunity to indulge in a great book. This is similar to my current circumstance: because I am required to work at least fifteen hours a week, I never really have enough time to do pastimes I enjoy because I am cognizant of the school assignments that I am also required to do. In brief, work-life balance should be prioritized over your salary, primarily because other than paying for your bills and other important expenses, stabilizing your work and life ethic is more integral.
I think that a four day school week is a good idea. Though we lose a day of school, we AND the teachers get an extra day off for rest/homework. A while ago, I had read that a school in Colorado had adopted this idea and I thought that that was an interesting idea. So I looked into it and found this from TheDenverChannel;
"As of May 2019, nearly 560 districts in 25 states had adopted the four-day week, and Colorado leads the nation in school districts with four-day weeks with more than 60% of districts statewide adopting the model. Brighton 27J is one of the largest districts in the nation on a four-day week, making the switch last year."
I figured i'd look into the pros and cons of this article and see what all the fuss was about this idea.
For starters, this plan decreased the number of disciplined young-adults by more than 73%.
But, this could affect the holiday schedule and your parents might also have to struggle with an extra day if they can't leave you alone in this house when they have a 9-5 job.
@Soen McCormick I agree that the four day school week would help students with rest and homework. After reading your research, I get the statistics. Students end up wasting their free time, and the rate of disciplined young adults drops. But after researching, what pros did you find about the four day school week? If there isn’t many pros after testing it out, then it shouldn’t be spread and used elsewhere.
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
School- and workweeks should conform to four days a week instead of five. It would be beneficial for both students and workers, as it would give them time to repose and to do their personal agenda. Relaxing can actually help you stay focused and it can tremendously boost your performance in school and/or work. Furthermore, the article also stated that, "Last year, for example, a New Zealand estate planning advisory firm with about 240 employees earned headlines around the world after finding that a trial four-day week had boosted performance. The two-month experiment was so successful that the business, Perpetual Guardian, made the change permanent." Speaking from personal experience, my performance in school would improve if there was a three-day weekend. There would be a balance—I would have ample time to do what I please, and revise my work to my satisfaction, without feeling stressed or unproductive. Although having short weekdays would have its downsides, like less days for learning, we would be able to adapt. After the Typhoon in the Marianas, school was cancelled for about two months, and when we resumed, we ran on half-day schedules. We were still able to adapt to it, and we were still learning despite the circumstances. In any case, It would still be fine if we stick to five days a week, but four days would be nice for our mental health, school is tiring me out.
In and in this article about having a four day work week instead of five, I think that this in the work environment and in schools this would be beneficial. In the article it said that the work went up by 40% that is a lot.
The reason for this in my opinion is that the workers have more time to rest and relieve stress which is a big factor in how much work will get done. I have talk to people who have four day weeks instead of five and even his children they say that having this is a great help to them. They have more time to do the absurd amount of homework for teachers give and still have time to rest and relieve stress which makes for a happier person which leads to a happier life.
They should start doing this for school and work all around the world it would be very beneficial for everyone in the world itself.
A four day weekend is what most people dream of and it’s not a bad idea. The reason why is because many of our students, teachers and workers do not get a lot of sleep. Many students tend to go to sleep around 1 in the morning or later and then waking up around 6. Which is very unhealthy because our body needs about 8 hours of sleep and if we constantly don’t acquire that amount of sleep then some students may fall asleep in class or they’re unable to focus. From one of my experience, I was able to finish all my work and I was also able to spend time with my friends. I was also able to get enough sleep during the weekend and feel much better the next day. I believe that if we do have a four day weekend, it will give people more time to get things done and also have some personal time and have a mental and physical rest.
Schools and workweeks should appeal to the possibility of change and twist the routine of five weeks to four weeks, to help boost productivity and create an extra day for recreational hobbies such as art. Although the following examples is not full yet, it is a good sample. An example of Utah workers that applied the four-week workweek have showed improvement in performance. Could this have an impact for you to go for a shorter week? There are opinions that cutting off their work-hours would cut off their salary or class-time in school. Although this information can help a little with provide a positive for shorter weeks, this can have its downsides for cutting off income or knowledge. The world is changing;there should be more statistic proof to clearly fact the positives and negatives of shorter weeks.
Schools should continue to operate five days a week. Cutting the school week to four days, would be to lose an extra day of work that could’ve been used for a new lesson to learn, or a day to catch up on work. There, being many holidays in the year, has given me an insight on what it’s like to have a four-day school week--and let me tell you now, it’s STRESSFUL. Without the extra day, my teachers had to cram a day’s worth of work into the four days we got to be in school. Each lecture was of value, and to lose a day was to lose a huge part of the lesson. We learned one chapter in a day, so you can imagine that losing a day, per week, for an entire year--- would have us struggling and behind by many chapters. Jamming work into four days would leave no room for fun and excitement. The extra day allows for students to learn with quality and to have fun, because there’s another day to catch up on things they didn’t understand. An extra day allows for students to take a breather in-between days, so that they’re not drained by the end of the week. That is why schools should continue their five-day week---to even out the work given each day and not bombard students with a bunch of crammed work.
PROMPT : How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time?
What else?
I believe my life would change if I went to school for only four days a week because it will change our learning activity time. Having only four days a week of classes may be a bit difficult for some of us students and teachers because in a 1 week class, we are able to do work at a certain time, and be taught at the same time. I believe I will still be productive even if there are only four days a week of school, because it really depends on the teachers if they will have enough time to teach us. Although, I am able to have more time doing things I enjoy outside of school because then we would have a three day-off from school. I have experienced a time where we had only a four day class because there was a holiday that time. My teachers gave me work within those four days of classes. I did have enough time to finish the work because I was able to keep up my time management skills. Therefore, it really depends if a student or teacher could manage their time wisely because, even if we have only four days a week of school, we should still be able to learn within those days.
Four-day week for schools and works could be very benificial to us and other all around the world. We could us the extra day to relax or to hang out with family more. Five-day can be stressful and just make a person lazy and unmotivated. I remember having a 4-day week for one of my old schools and many of the students liked the idea . We had a short time limit but managed to get things done by Thursday which was very good. Then on Friday, i got to be with my family and also do work too. I believe if schools do the four-day schedule then many of the students , perferably highschool, could do activities that they want outside of school like a job or maybe a club. For workers would be a really good deal since they would have an extra day to relax. Since the japanese workers who had the shortened week had their productivity improve by 40%, maybe if we, the CNMI, and other parts of the world would try this then the students and the other workers will also improve in our productivity program and many more. I also really think that the shortening of the week would improve our bodies mentally and physically.
I do think there should only be four days allowed in the school and work week. Four days in a week would be the most mentally efficient for students and workers. Shorter weeks means more time to do things and relax. Also, as a part time student and worker, I would find that closing shifts where I usually get home around 11 pm would be insufferable the next day. Sleeping late and having to wake early for school has definitely affected me. It’s also probably good to have lots of time to yourself, as psychology says people tend to enjoy doing things when they aren’t instructed to do so. That means instead of having a confined feeling within five weeks to complete all your tasks, you now have the option of doing them on your own time.
When school and workweek are having four days instead of five, it will bring a better performance in workplace and better acadamic learning in school. As a student and a part time worker, I need to separate my time very carfully for me to prevent staying up all night for the homework that I didn't finished. The second after class started, I will be the people that is very sleepy or sometime sleeping in class. It will be a lot better with a four day workday or school day. Having four days will give me more time to take a break from the transition of working, school, and homework. It will give a me big chance to finish it before the deadline. Having four day workday in school means that I can spead more time sleep in the house instead of school. I will be fully perpared to learn after I had a very good nap. It will improve the memories of pople and it will clear a person's mind to focus more on the lesson that the teachers are talking about.
After reading the article, I can understand why businesses are thinking of adding hours to Thursday so they can have Friday off, but this just wouldn’t work in a school. Companies don’t give out homework, therefore workers wouldn’t have to worry about doing anything after their jobs. Us students on the other hand, would have to stay up to unimaginable times finishing the homework that's been added on from a longer school day.
Piling on hours to a school day keeps anyone with a busy schedule in a bind. It would be torturous to force a student with an already busy life to cram their usual routine to a new and shorter timeframe. I for one, wouldn’t open up my Friday for this schedule. Microsoft Japan can keep their workers proactivity, but don’t change schools based on the proactive behavior of workers from one company rising 40%. Just because it happened to one business, doesn’t mean that it’ll have the same effects on overworked students. Lengthening school days will result in students scrambling to finish their piles of schoolwork with less hours and having to do it all again three days later.
Unless the majority of companies agree to switch over to four day workweeks with longer hours, there’s not going to be a big change any time soon for them either. If Mr. Chokshi wants a work-life balance, he should instead consider giving workers more time off to spend with their families instead of adding unwanted hours to each day.
There are some advantages and disadvantages to having only four days of school dedicated to instructional time. First and foremost is that we would lose a day of learning if we were to integrate this schedule, less time to teach could possibly mean more work and homework in the long run. Secondly, pay rates may change for the staff as they would be working less hours. Here in the CNMI, the staff's overall salary had already been cut in half in the recent year, an article written by Erwin Encinares on sapaintribune.com reads "The Board of Education voted yesterday to slash the salary increases of Public School System staff by 50 percent, with the exception of employees earning below $23,660 per annum, during a marathon board meeting on Capital Hill". However, despite these potential drawbacks, there are advantages if we do switch to a four day schedule. Students would have an extra day to have time off of doing work, this would result in students becoming less stressed from all the work they are required to do. Having another day off of school would mean more opportunities to spend time with friends, family, or just have some time to themselves. In my opinion, I believe that the benefits of having only four days of school outweigh the cons. I think it would have a positive impact on the student's morale and overall health as they would have more time to enjoy life and not have to worry about the struggles of school for a while.
I’m a student athlete and having school days being four days instead of five would be such a relief. Schools should encourage four day work week because it’ll give extra time for students. Here’s why extra time is very important. My daily schedule starts of with me waking up at 8:00am and ending at 9:30 pm. In these 13 hours and 30 minutes, I have to attend school, club activities, and soccer practices. After these 13 hours and 30 minutes, I have to come home to homework that are assigned to be due by the next day. Other students probably have their day started before or after my schedule and end probably earlier or later depending on their club activities and hobbies. There are some nights I stay up past midnight trying to finish my school work. As a result, I get less than 7 hours of sleep and not enough time to focus and finish my work with punctuality before the next day. With these three day weekends, I can be able to maintain my body’s health by sleeping earlier, have time for other activities , and not stress over school assignments. In addition, an extra hour or more of sleep would allow me and other students more time to feel energized and ready for class.
Being a full time student could be challenging and stressful so having a one day break from all of school works could benefit us in many ways. This is why I definitely agree that school and workweek should be shortened and just be four days. I have church every saturday, sunday and even in the weekdays this is why sometimes it is hard for me to catch up in some of my works especially that I have two (2) online classes. Imagine spending your five days attending classes then going home still doing school related works instead of spending your time with your friends and family or just getting a sleep or rest. So having four days of learning at school and one day to rest from everything is a lot beneficial not only in our physical health but also mentally. You could spend more time with your family free from all of works even just for one day, or it can be your self day, where you can make time for yourself. Wouldn’t it be amazing? This goes also for people that are working for five days or sometimes six days. Especially if they are parents that are very occupied and needs to make time for their children. Thus, having one day break is absolutely helpful and beneficial to us as it makes us free from all the stress from school and work.
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
A four-day school- and workweek would be beneficial for both students and workers. As a student, five-day school-weeks make me feel tired and burdened with the amount of work and the lack of abundant time to complete it. As a result, I would normally feel worn out at the end of each week, feeling reluctant and unprepared to face the next one. However, if four-day school- and workweek would be put into effect, there is a high chance of increased productivity not only for me, but also for every student and worker that are faced with the same situation. The extra free day would allow students and workers alike more time to rest and do their work. In addition to this, they also get an opportunity to spend time doing things they cannot normally do because of a five-day school- and workweek, such as socializing and spending quality time with friends and family. As a result, there will be improvements in their mental and physical health. They will become more concentrated and will result in a better academic achievement and work performance. Therefore, four-day school- and workweek could result in an increased amount of productivity and could benefit students and workers in their work or academic performances as well their personal life.
School and workweek should be four days instead of five. It will bring the students with a better academic learning. As a student in 11th grade, there is a lot of things that I should do, I need to plan my time in a very detailed way and follow them in a very serious way. It will take out all the focus in me, because I need to think of how long I need to spead for Homework, working and helping my parents. With a five days school, I can't have time to relax and work like a robot in order for me to catch up everything I planed. It will make me tired and when there is a lot of homework, I wlll need to stay up late for finishing it. With a four day school, I will have time to relax due to one extra day for rest, I will have three day to do a long weekend homework or project and I can plant it with some break inbetween. It will help me to have a better rest, the result of this will be me having more energy in class to be in the lesson and remember it better. It will help me to memorize something that I nned for test as well.
In response to prompt 4,
Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt says "We value work as an end in itself." This statement is not entirely true of. The classification that we, as a whole, value work for itself is untrue. We see work as a way to be able to afford the luxury of happiness. In this day and age it is hard to be able to have any of life's necessities without money. When we work, we do it to be able to provide for ourselves. As a highschool student, I find myself packing my schedule and occasionally overworking myself in the hopes that I will be able to get into college and then get a good job. This is the case for most of my peers as well. Life is essentially just different stages of work. Working has become a part of our life that cannot be taken away. We use the amount of work we do to measure our success and most of the time we do not even enjoy the work we do. Furthermore, if working was truly an end in itself people would not be trying for a four day work week. According to a test conducted by Microsoft Japan, two thirds of the workers preferred to have a four day work day. People favor the ability to have more time to relax. The only reason they work is to be able to reach their end goal. Working itself is not their end goal. It is to be successful in their own definition of the word. It is to be happy, be rich, or even have a family. All these things take work to get to. Work is a means to an end not an end in itself.
Four day school weeks can be very helpful and beneficial for students to keep up with everything both in their academic and personal lives. As a high school student, I take two AP classes, several extracurricular activities, and that along with chores and other duties at home, it is difficult to find time for myself or others without procrastination or complete ignorance of all my responsibilities. Four day work weeks can lessen the stress placed upon students with an extra day to do whatever they need to do so they are able to focus on themselves. A student's mental health should be considered as one of the most important things in our education system. Even with only four days of instructional days, from my personal experience, students learn just as much if not better when they know that they have a longer break. Just as a dog would do better tricks for a better treat. With the time given for students to focus on themselves, they should be in a better state of mind and more academically capable than before. The extra day off can be given to complete work, spend time with family and friends, or whatever the student needs to relax and relieve their stress. Students should be able to adjust to a four day week schedule that is beneficial to their academic performance and state of mind.
Schools and organizations should have four-day school-weeks instead of five. Although a five-day work week would generate more “productivity”, it wouldn’t serve students better in the long run. Benefits of a 4-day school-week would be strengthened attention span and a healthier atmosphere. From my experience, I found that having an extra day like a holiday on Monday would be just enough for me to catch up on everything, finish my work and still be able to rest compared to weeks where I do not have a day to myself and I arrive at school sleep deprived and tired. In those days, I would barely remember what the agenda was or the topic of our discussion. Having a four-day week would increase our attention span therefore allowing us to maintain knowledge for a longer period and hopefully throughout our whole life instead of retaining it for a test/final. Along with boosted attentiveness, we are blessed with the feeling of being well rested. Not only will a four-day weekend give us more time to complete our activities, it gifts us with more time for yourself. Often times, students feel burnt out, and exhausted mainly because school work can be such a hassle. I have experienced being dead beat because of the amount of work I was obliged to finish to get a good grade. However, out of all the things in the world, taking care of yourself mentally and physically. Shrinking our five-day school-weeks to four-day school-weeks may be all we need to keep ourselves going.
How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? What else?
I would firstly think that my life would drastically change if I went to school with only four days a week. Considering I am heavily oriented to my extracurriculars, I will have more time in balancing school and my activities. With this extended period of free days, I can open to more ventures such as a job to prepare my future's finance. I believe that I will be able to be more productive in school, the prolonged weekend can mean that I will be able to have a balance between school and life, thus being productive. I will have more time to work on my own club, school extracurriculars, sports, and the pursuit of my very own happiness.
Students should not work on a four day schedule due to lack of education. Education is one of the most important things a person needs. Although school may be disliked by many, its because of the lack of focus and professionalism everyone has. You learn, get home, and prepare for the future. I believe that students waste their time procrastinating and not doing their homework and projects. We fall under the generation where we do it all last minute, we think it is all gonna turn out okay. From my experience, I always try to put school first before my unnecessary doings. Go home and straight homework. We need to manage our time because if all doesn't go then might fall in the end. I believe we should work on a 5 day schedule. For me personally, the school should include important subjects students can actually use for the future instead of some things we dont actually need.
Reading this article that says people are more productive and successful with a four day week doesn't surprise me. Personally, when I have a lot of free time I get more done than if I have no time off from working and can't take any breaks. For example, my school recently had two three day weekends in a row and for those two weeks, I got more quality work done than a normal week as well as score significantly better on my tests. I think everyone needs more than just two out of seven days off every week because rest is important and there is often not enough time for that during normal two day weekends.
As a high school student, I believe that school should not be 4 days a week. If we were to have 4 days of school there would less instruction time if we were to have holidays like Veterans Day. If we were to have a holiday, we would only have 3 days of school which could affect lessons in classes and the students' grades. Longer weekends could make students forget what they have learned the day before and would weaken their performance in class. For many students, having an extra weekend will give them more time to slack and just do their work the day before school starts. For example, last week I had a three day weekend and had a lot of homework to do. However, I did it on Monday evening instead of doing before. In a teacher's perspective, if they were to work only 4 days a week, they would have less income and less time to teach lessons constantly and time to make sure that their students understand. With less time, both students and teachers will get stressed which can lead to mental exhaustion. Being mentally exhausted can lead to depression which could lead to insomnia which causes mental fatigue. Over time, it can lead to physical issues and stress related illness that can affect the human body and cause people to be less responsive and can lead to temper issues. Having 4 days of instruction time a week can lead to many risks that can affect the human body negatively.
School/workweeks should be shortened to four days as it could have a positive effect on students and employees. An extra day could be used to give time for themselves, to relax, and spend more time on doing what they love to do. Everyone has responsibilities and priorities to do every single week and some barely get to experience what it's like to relax and enjoy time with people and things they love to do. Being a student, education has been one of my top priorities in life. Going to school 5 days a week for months can be stressful and problematic to people. I've witnessed a few people in my life who had major problems with their mental health because of continuously dealing with school and all the work they had to accomplish. On top of that, they would have jobs and other things in life they would want to do. An extra rest day would be greatly needed for people like them as it could be used for extra time to be able to finish what needs to be done. We've recently had many holidays and 3 day weekends. During those extra rest days, I was able to travel off-island for a while, catch up on work and still be able to spend time with people I love, and take a short break. There's many benefits of having a four day week for students and workers as it could allow people to have more personal time for themselves.
Promt: Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
I think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five. Having four days in school will increase the score and daily proformance of students. As a student, I feel that five day for school is pressuring. It will make me don't have time to play and even relax. After the whole day of lesson, I will become very sleepy. Changing it into a four day of work will bring up the attendance number and the students' grade. I will have more time to talk and become socialize. It will provide more time for the students to sleep and when it is school days, students will be less sleepy and proform a better job in listening to the teachers. By doing this, will bring the score of a person up.
Yes, school and the workweek should instead be four days. Education is essential for me to have the future I am aiming for. However, sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with. Having four day weeks would help me succeed as a student. First of all, I could use that extra weekend day to do my assignments and studying as I do not have much time to do those on regular weeks. Other than academics itself, it is difficult to manage extracurricular activities and filial activities. Another benefit is that it will help my sleep schedule. Having to stay up to finish all my work is my norm, if I can instead do the work during the day outside of school, my health will definitely improve. Lastly, four day weeks would not only help me but also the government. I have read this article about a Kansas school having to adopt four day weeks because of lack of funds. Similarly, by implementing four day weeks, the government can also save money and direct it towards other needs.
In response to prompt #1
A four day school/work week is far more beneficial than a workweek of five days. Like the article stated, "In Sweden, a two-year experiment found that nurses who worked 30-hour week spread over five days were happier and healthier than counterparts who worked a typical 40-hour week". Less work time is proven to be more productive and healthier for the employees rather than having more work time which would sometimes cause people to burn out and risk their mental and physical health. Having less time working is healthier and will benefit employees.
School and workweek should be four days instead of five. As high school students, it cannot be disregarded that as much as we prioritize education, it is necessary that we have an extra day that provides ample time to accomplish prime concerns related or unrelated to school. School takes up approximately 7 hours each day, along with the extra hours we have after it being used to complete homework and other assignments. Because the substantial amount of time we devote in a day goes to school work, we rarely have the time for other personal obligations. For instance, some working students use their free schedule during school hours as an opportunity to execute their broken schedule at work. In general, working students are expected to be of accommodation for up to 5 or more hours which leads them to coming home by midnight or even later; similarly, student athletes along with student performers devote immense effort in their crafts, taking several hours practicing, performing, or playing. Ultimately, five days of school week becomes a deterioration significantly to our brains and growth as we average an amount of sleep lower than 8 hours. Personally, even the weekends are insufficient to have leisure time, for even then I am still working on weekly assigned homework, catching up on online assignments all while taking two online courses, and doing biology note revisions. With the imposed four days of school rule, even teachers have an extra day off they deserve after all.
Prompt #1
To many individuals, the prospect of only having to work four days a week seems like an ideal livelihood. Although the traditional workweek has been implemented for decades and is proven to be effective, many businesses have begun to enforce compressed workweeks. The Perpetual Guardian, a management firm in New Zealand, was among one of the first businesses to experiment with this concept. The business’ alteration had shown effective results, with employees feeling productive, motivated, and less stressed. A compressed week also allows workers to commute less frequently, therefore, reducing their carbon footprint. The strategy of a shorter week does not solely profit the business but also its employees; it is an approach that has been evidenced to work both efficiently and positively. Because of its many benefits and advantages, it is a sensible plan for businesses to employ a four-day week.
The statistics say it, and I think we should listen. If four day weeks are boosting productivity, then we should commit to the idea. If the shortened week works with work, tan it will most likely work equal to, or even better with schools. The reason I believe having a four day week could be better is that students would have more time to do work for the teachers at home. Having an extra day to do homework could have kids not staying up as late, More time to do extracurricular activities, and more time to do homework.
I disagree with Mr. Hunnicutt because work cannot answer all questions about human beings. I also know that specific generations don't all believe the same thing. I asked a baby boomer his thoughts on Mr. Hunnicutt’s statement, and he disagreed as well. And okay, boomers more likely have more knowledge than us Gen Zś but I believe that is due to the fact that Baby boomers are older and have received more information through the years.
As a high school student and developing teenager, I think education is one of the most current important things in my life. I think that the school and workweek should be four days instead of five because it gives us, the students, and the faculty an extra day to blow off some stress. A five day school week can be stressful to some students and cause them to perform poorly on tests and other levels of schoolwork.
Some of the many advantages to a shortened week is that students and faculty get an extra day to relax and get caught up on work. This can be important to some people as they can have busy lives and not come home until late, not giving them a chance to do schoolwork. One of the main disadvantages to a shortened week is that many people could argue that it gives less instructional time, saying that students would learn less than in a full week. In my opinion, I feel like the many pros outweigh the cons.
I think my life would change a lot if I went to a school for only four days a week because it would give me a chance to get caught up on stuff that I either missed or don't understand. I would be more productive at school as I would be less stressed and anxious.
I see work as something that an individual earns at the end like good grades or a good job.
In my future career, I would rather have a job that pays me a lot but requires more working hours because it would give me a chance to enjoy my job and get money to pay for rent and other things.
I think that we should have shorter weeks. 34 percent of worker favor a compressed work week of four days. This may also have an effect on the productivity in a positive way. Workers will feel pressured to finish in a shorter amount of time, therefore they are more productive. Workers will also get what they want, more time to relax and spend time with loved ones.
As an athlete and student things are stressful. I have gone through many hard times worrying about work that I haven't done because of my schedule. I honestly think that having 4 days is better than 5 because it gives time for that person to rest so they would be able to focus much better and it helps them be more productive with school work at home. Having the extra day-off will also give students like me to spend more time with my family as I am not able to as of now. Many students in this generation are also not fully developed; this means that a lot of children do not grow because many do not get enough sleep or time to properly take care of themselves. Having a extra time on my hands will for sure help me with my financial problems that may occur in the future, meaning that I would have the time to find myself a job and earn enough money so I wouldn't struggle while studying in college or for family issues. I would say that having 1 more day free will help students and families accomplish many things such as earning enough money,growing up to be healthy, and not worrying about stressful things such as homework.
Schools should be reduced to four days instead of five to enable students with a substantial amount of sleep and a fair amount of time to complete all their assignments. As a junior at my high school, I am constantly faced with many challenges such as online courses, AP classes, chores, taking care of my siblings, and extra curricular activities such soccer. My problem with school is not the subject or the course, but the time I am given to complete all my assignments. I am relentlessly coddled by assignments but am never given enough time to breath. Successful educational systems are not always about the work that is provided but is also the amount of time given to students to process what they've just learned. An example for this is Finland, they focus more on the students and less on the work, they believe that wisdom is gained from classes and not from the assignments.
I think school and weekly work should be reduced to four-days instead of five days. Shortening the working hours of a week may bring many benefits, but it will increase work efficiency and completion. In addition to this, I can get enough rest. I have to do my homework almost every weekend for two days. I always feel pressure because of the heavy workload. I have little time to spend with my family and friends, which makes me feel more stressed. All of this pressure has affected my performance at school because I started giving up on tasks because I can't afford too much stress and other personal problems. It’s like a three-day holiday in school. When I go back to school, I will find that I am more motivated to learn and do things more focused. So four days and weeks are not a bad thing, and there are many benefits.
I think school and weekly work should be reduced to four-days instead of five days. Shortening the working hours of a week may bring many benefits, but it will increase work efficiency and completion. In addition to this, I can get enough rest. I have to do my homework almost every weekend for two days. I always feel pressure because of the heavy workload. I have no time to spend with my family and friends, which makes me feel more stressed. All of this pressure has affected my performance at school because I started giving up on tasks because I can't afford too much stress and other personal problems. It’s like a three-day holiday in school. When I go back to school, I will find that I am more motivated to learn and do things more focused. So four-days weeks are not a bad thing, and there are many benefits.
Prompt #1
The school and work week should be reduced to four days. I am a full-time student, with a majority of my time dedicated to school related activities. Most of my days consist of studying, revising notes, or doing other assignments. Because of this, I do not have much time for anything else. Time that could have been spent with my loved ones or doing something I enjoy is lost because I am often preoccupied with school. By shortening the school week, I, and many others would be able to use that extra day for our personal needs. We would have more time to work on our hobbies, enjoy time with family and friends, and so on. The possibilities are endless, and all of this could be achieved with just one extra day.
I believe that the work week should be shortened to four days. Giving people the extra day would allow them to be more refreshed when coming back to work, which will make for increased productivity. Microsoft Japan ran a trial that spanned over a couple weeks and found that productivity was increased by 40 percent. I believe that this was the case because the workers only have to make it through less days, which makes them out the work that they would usually slack on. The four day work week will not be in America anytime soon, but I hope to see it sometime in the future.
Maintaining a balanced schedule and managing your time properly is what most people strive for. An extra day-off from a shortened workweek would result in a boost of productivity. This may be because the elongated break allows for a period of time to compose one's personal and work/school duties. Despite the accustomed five-day working schedule many has adopted, some companies have taken the liberty to test and discover the outcome a shortened workweek. For instance, studies from Microsoft Japan have shown a 40 percent increase of productivity due to decrease from five to four workdays a week. My public school system had recently encountered a shortened school-week: federal holidays that had taken up two Mondays of instructional time. In response to the 3-day-weekend, I enjoyed the extra day off by taking my time with assignments and spend quality time with my family. The holiday allowed me to better prepare myself for the workweek and clear my mind of stress. By the time Tuesday arrived, I surpisingly found myself eager to get back to school. I had also noticed an increase in productivity and participation in myself as a student. I had shared a similar experience with that of Microsoft Japan's "subjects." A simple day's cut from the usual 5-day workweek had resulted in a productivity boost from workers and/or students.
Maintaining a balanced schedule and managing your time properly is what most people strive for. An extra day-off from a shortened workweek would result in a boost of productivity. This may be because the elongated break allows for a period of time to compose one's personal and work/school duties. Despite the accustomed five-day working schedule many has adopted, some companies have taken the liberty to test and discover the outcome a shortened workweek. For instance, studies from Microsoft Japan have shown a 40 percent increase of productivity due to decrease from five to four workdays a week. My public school system had recently encountered a shortened school-week: federal holidays that had taken up two Mondays of instructional time. In response to the 3-day-weekend, I enjoyed the extra day off by taking my time with assignments and spend quality time with my family. The holiday allowed me to better prepare myself for the workweek and clear my mind of stress. By the time Tuesday arrived, I surpisingly found myself eager to get back to school. I had also noticed an increase in productivity and participation in myself as a student. I had shared a similar experience with that of Microsoft Japan's "subjects." A simple day's cut from the usual 5-day workweek had resulted in a productivity boost from workers and/or students.
Being a student and having a certain amount of work, I would agree with the fact that a four-day workweek would be much more productive, efficient, and less complex. A four-day workweek has more advantages than a five-day and that students should operate in it. The most important advantage, for me, would be time managing and not procrastinate. Most of my sleeping hours have lessened because of the assignments that need to be completed, which affects, not only my physical but emotional conditions. Almost every day, I wake up with less than 6 hours of sleep -- the average hours of sleep students need are within 8 - 10. Its almost like a cycle if you think about it: I sleep late because of many assignments that are due, I wake up with less than average amount of hours, I have less focus on my classes, it affects my grades, I need to make up works to boost my grade, then back to sleeping late. Teachers probably experience something like that, too: creating future work for their students, grading, etc. A four-day workweek would be great so that I could organize and manage my tasks, spend some time with family and friends, and reach the average sleep hours. I believe that schools, businesses, and any other work-related systems should follow the four-day workweek arrangement.
As much as I would love to stay home for more days than I already do, I believe that there would be too many disadvantages and changes that students would not be able to adapt to. Of course, most students see this a welcome change, but don’t realize the effect it has on teachers and students alike. More days home means more homework, which students usually put aside until the last possible moment. The amount of work that would pile up would increase the amount of stress as well, which could serve detrimental effects on a student’s mental health. Deterioration on mental health could potentially lead to lower educational growth and exhaustion rates increasing. It’s quite ironic to think about exhaustion increasing when thinking of longer times of rest, but most students procrastinate, myself included. As said before, there have been many three day weekends for consecutive weeks, and I have not been more overwhelmed by the pressure of multiple assignments done in a day. The responsibility of completing work should fall on the students, but most believe in themselves to overcome the pressure as they have many times before. This usually leads to less effort on work, which brings the work value down. This sudden change in scheduling would leave students with more and more work piled up at the ending of each weekend.
By having four days a week I would be more productive and would spend more time on extracurricular activities. With an extra day off that makes extra time to focus on other things besides main work from school. From my experience regular school work over the weekend can be done within a day. This leaves Sunday for a day of rest and normal things like chores or errands to be done. With this extra day it gives me the ability to have more time for extracurricular activities like sports or hobbies. It will also lead to less work within the week which can make me more productive and worry less about loads of work that needs to be done.
Having a four day work week may yield more benefits than the conventional five days. As the article states, a company in New Zealand implemented the four-day week schedule. This resulted in many positive results, such as the happiness and positive well-being of the workers. The article also states some drawbacks, such as the requirement for new workers to be hired. In our day and age, finding a job is quite the task. There are barely any establishments that are open for the youth. Four day work weeks will result in the plethora of available jobs. In addition, another day during the weekend would provide more time to give higher quality work for school. In our age most people are pressed for time. There are struggles to balance things out in your life. In conclusion, implementing four work week schedule will yield more benefits, including the positive well-being of people, than it has drawbacks. The benefits significantly outweigh the drawbacks it may have.
As a student and a growing teenager, education is one of the most important things in my life. However, going to school five days a week can be stressful and problematic. The benefits of a shortened school week outweigh its disadvantages. One of the main drawbacks of a shortened school week is less instructional time. Teachers and administrators are worried that students won’t learn as much as they would in a shorter week. In my experience, because of less instructional time, our attention span is lengthened, allowing us to focus more on the lesson. This positively impacts scores and grades, as well as increase our knowledge. Another benefit to a shorter week is the extra time for both students and teachers. There is no doubt that teachers deserve breaks too, as they nurture our knowledge to its finest. Having a shorter week allows teachers the break they need in order to fully prepare and plan a lesson, and have time for themselves. Along with that, a student has more time to do homework, study for tests, and still have fun. Just recently, a holiday caused the school week to be shortened to four days. That extra day was all I needed to relieve my stress. Because of that extra day-off, I managed to stay on task with all my work, if not ahead, and spend time with family and friends. We all need a break every now and then, maybe just to sit back and relax, just to get back into the game, stronger. Having a shorter week can do all these things, and many more.
@Brian I completely agree with your comment. I believe that it is important for all of us to have breaks; teachers and students. A 4 day week allows just that. Administrators may think that we would take advantage of having a 3 day weekend and not use that day for rest, but I know for a fact, and the few hundred people I have seen in the comments, would not.
In my mind, I only have one day that is a true day off, and that is Saturday. Every weekend I have at least 2 hours of no homework with no breaks. But, because I am a kid and research shows humans have short attention spans, that two hours, is usually 4. I spend my whole Sunday doing schoolwork and some guaranteed family time. In my reality, I feel as though I have a 6 day week, so having a shorter week would be extremely beneficial.
Prompt: Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five?
Schools and companies should be encouraged to establish four day work weeks. As a student, I try my very best to juggle school work, baby sitting, church, and soon enough a job. Having a four day week will form a balance between work and my personal life. With a shorter work week, it provides additional time to complete assignments. Granting more time to devote to my work, therefore, submitting quality work rather than rushed work. With the extended weekend, it also gives me more time to spend with my family and friends, participate in activities, and, most importantly, rest. We’ve been so busy making money that we forget to cherish the priceless things in life. Lessening the work days, however, allows us to be physically and mentally healthy, in order to fulfill our duties efficiently.
I believe that we should work on a four workday schedule. The tight schedule of just having four days to finish an amount of work would make people work productively and avoid procrastination. The extra day also helps people have time to bond with their family or have extra time to finish things they want to do. As a student with AP classes and many different kinds of music curriculum in and outside of school, I often find myself not having enough time. During school days I would be sleep deprived and end up not being focused in class. Also rushed work becomes a problem due to time limitation. Time spended with family is also limited, during school days. It's whether me working on homework or practicing for a lesson other than helping my parents or spending time with my brothers. The cutting of five workday to four would greatly benefit everyone. People can be more productive during their shorter working days and have an extra to prepare for their next working days. Having a four workday schedule can improve concentration and motivation and therefore make every workday efficient.
I believe that school and workweek should be four days rather than five. Most students and adults feel pressured by the amount of work, including the limited time they have. By shortening a day of the week would give many benefits, such as improving performance, efficiency, and raised morale, which is vital for those who are dealing with stress. If there is more work, the amount of exhaustion will increase, following by reduced motivation. Furthermore, individuals who are content will work harder in the best possible manner and lead to a better work ethic. In the article, Benjamin Barnes states, "value work as an end in itself." I agree with this statement, but despite the significance of working for the things that we want, work isn't all there is to life. With a four day school and workweek, I believe that we can live a healthier, sustained and quality life.
@Jayvian I believe that the for day work week would provide many benefits for both adults and students. I completely agree when you say that the shorter week will raise morale, increase efficiency, and lower stress. The point you make about how work isn’t all there is to life is very reflective of today’s society. Today’s people only think about the work that they must do and how much money you make rather than doing things that they enjoy.
My life would drastically change if school was shortened to only four days a week. In my school, we usually have half-days every other Friday. Personally, I am always looking forward to the weekend, which makes me more productive in school, so I can have more time off to relax and spend time with friends and family. It motivates me to do more because we have less school hours. Having a shorter school week motivates me to complete all my work and pay more attention in school . My mentality is to put in more effort to make up for the lost hours that the half-day takes away. Furthermore, it will alter the energy of my productivity in school as they shorten the school week.
School and workweeks should be four days instead of five. Students are often overwhelmed with school work and extra curricular activities, some even with personal problems. Students have no time for themselves because they have so much to do with so little time. Most students have jobs already trying to supply for their family. It's pretty exhausting to have to go to school for 7 hours a day, then work the rest of the afternoon til night. Not having enough time to complete your study and homework, and as well as lack of sleep will have a real physical and emotional impact on the health of a student. As a student with many extra curricular activities, online classes and AP classes, it is a tough load. I only ever have time for myself on Sundays, but I usually spend my time studying or going through homework. If another day were to be added to my weekend, It would give me the peace of mind I long for. A student's mental health is just as important to a student's physical health. A student would be able to be diligent about their emotional health if school and workweeks would be four days instead of five.
School and workweek should be cut down to four days a week instead of five because we can use the extra days off to take care of ourselves. I've recently experienced having 2 three days off from school in a row and I noticed that I was more motivated to get my work done and also had time for myself. It's important that we take care of ourselves because if we don't then it can affect our performance in school or work. I have homework to get done almost every weekend in a span of two days and I would always feel pressured because of the amount of work I had to get done. I would barely have time for family and friends or myself which caused me to feel even more stressed. All this stress affected my performance in school because I started to give up on getting my assignments done because I couldn't handle so much stress along with other personal problems. I have friends who feel the same way as I do and we could all agree that having four instructional days would give us the time to take care of ourselves. We can not only take care of ourselves, but we can perform better in school or work which means better time management and being able to get tasks done while being content with ourselves.
Adjusting to a 4 day work week wouldn’t be as difficult as it may seem. Living here in the CNMI has shown that having 4 day work weeks have become beneficial not just to the students, but to the adult workers as well. Recently, PSS has had two 4 work day weeks because of holidays. From what I experienced during those two weeks, it has shown me that I work much better with an extra day in my weekend. I was able to catch up on so much work, yet I also had the time to catch up on sleep that I’ve lost during the month. Along side that, I had time to handle things I needed to get done at home, and I also had time to be around friends and time to myself. Yet of course, there are people who wouldn’t agree with a 4 work day week. Many of those people, who are workers, would lose hours. The hours in which determine how much they make to support their own. Having weeks like this have pros and cons that’ll affect those who are opposed and those who aren’t.
Although enticing, the implementation of having only four days of school for students will not be as beneficial as others may think. For years, students have been trained to go to school from Monday through Friday. Making such a drastic change would take away the meaning to T.G.I.F. or the condoned idea of dreading the day after Sunday. With all seriousness, students need to see the bigger picture before supporting this plan. As a student, I for one know the agony that comes from receiving homework. The lack of instructional time would fall upon teachers assigning more work, not just in class, but also at home, to make up for the limited class time. Scoring high in various test programs such as ACT Aspire or SAT is a part of different schools' objectives. Having only four days of class time will influence how well the students perform on these tests. The only benefit I see coming from this would be giving the students more time to spend with family and friends. While tempting, the risks that are being taken with this plan taking place can lead to dissatisfying outcomes.
I agree with the idea of four workdays a week. As the logical reasoning for this is that it can help improve the worker's work ethic and can help increase business productivity as well. And it can also help slowly irradicate workers' stress and any negative emotions towards their work. Not only will this benefit people in the workforce, but this will also benefit students in school but will probably increase their motivation to learn and will have more time to rest, study for their classes, and decrease their stress from being overwhelmed from their school work.
It is more promising for school-and workweeks to be 5 days rather than 4. Living on an island prone to typhoons, the people of the CNMI afford to lose another school/workday. Although 5 days may be exhausting, 4 days isn’t enough. The four-days week will not suit everyone and many may have a hard time readapting. It has been a tradition for education to be 5 days a week and changing it will decrease our learning time. With limited capacity for learning and retention, students won’t be able to properly prepare themselves for their lives out of school (careers and college). It also results in longer hours for each school day and a regress on academic performances. An Oregon study found a decline in academic performance among minority, low-income and special needs students, in particular. As for work, 4 days a week will harm the non-exempt. The hours of employees will decrease, affecting their salaries and employees may have to start working 10-hour shifts.
In response to the second prompt, the advantages/pros of a four-day work and school week outweigh the cons. As a student, I deal with many things during the week, such as homework, hobbies, chores, and more. With the weekend, I try to make time for my family and me, where I don't have to worry about things that stress me out, like homework; however, even on weekends, I'd get assigned projects or classwork to do on weekends, so I'd spend most of my time doing that, which is one of the reasons why I'd agree on having a four-day school week. According to an article I read a while ago on a website called "The Culture Trip," Finland's school hours in a day are lesser than school days in America. It also says that they have one of the best education systems in the world because students are able to rest their brains and not stress out much, which is healthy because children must get more rest than adults due to a developing brain. Because of this, students in Finland have one of the highest scores in standardized tests. There is a small number of disadvantages to a four-day week, to the point where I could only think of one disadvantage, which would be an increased crime rate on teenagers. With the rise of underage drinking and smoking, most teenagers get into trouble (on weekends). A four-day week would give them more time to do what they want. All in all, a four-day week would be more beneficial than the usual because the education system would improve for many students.
Schools should have a four day week instead of a five day week so students can have the time to rest and have time to take care of obligations they have outside of school. By giving students a four day school week, students will have much more time to rest. Most students go to school feeling tired and not pay attention to the lecture because they don't have the energy to stay awake. With some students they feel tired when they come to school is because they have to take care of obligations at home. Just like my friend, he always goes to school feeling tired because he says that he has things to do at home so he stays up late at night to do them. By making the school week to four days we can ensure that students get enough rest to have the energy they need to get through a school week without feeling tired.
What might be some of the advantages and disadvantages of a shortened week? In your opinion, do the pros outweigh the cons?
An advantage for having a shortened week to work is that people will have more rest. The less work people do, the less stress will be on the body and mind. As a teen am stress and could use some rest. A disadvantage to having a shortened week is that less there will be less work done. If there was 4 days of school a week, I wouldn't have finished a lot of the work I have done. In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons. The more rest people can get, the more energy people will have to work.
Responding to the fifth prompt, I have seen that most individuals of my generation, Generation Z, would value work-life balance over pay. I have seen it affect some of my coworkers and even myself. I would sometimes call in sick the nest day at work because of the countless times I would stay up past 2 in the morning to complete my schoolwork. In addition, I'd prefer if my employer paid me less and gave me more time off; ergo, I'd have enough time to concentrate on myself, and possibly, my family. I'd rather that I live in poverty as a family making memories for my children to hold dearly, rather than as a family with an estranged father focused on earning money.
** 3rd Prompt **
Although five days of school do sound quite nice, having school for four days sounds very exciting. School is very important to us students, and so is the (home) work. If we were to have an extra day of rest, it helps give us time for outside activities and homework. In my case, however, I would prefer it if I had a whole day of rest so I can unwind, and I'm sure other students would like to do that as well (as it is important to take time for yourself instead of stressing out). Stress is something that everyone is familiar with. When a student receives an abundance amount of work that they are to complete over a two day weekend, they would be under pressure. Which makes having four days of school sound life-changing. It would benefit me, as well as other students, in many ways that I could think of. I could do my work without rushing and then rest on the following day (go outdoors and do other activities or stay indoors, play games, and nap). Then on the final day of the weekend, I would double-check any work that I could've possibly forgotten to do or even study for upcoming tests (it's the perfect plan!) Overall, it would lift a bunch of weight off my shoulders (since I tend to stress out a lot).
I truly believe that we should have a 4 day work week because then we would have an extra day to catch up on our sleep, work, or anything that has to be completed. I am aware of the disadvantages of a 4 day work week which is work hours being deducted from work schedules which can lead to less bread being earned. But I think it is very important to take care of our mental health and I think that extra day would come in handy. Based on my readings, an extra day is very beneficial as it can boost the students performance in school. I strongly believe that it can improve our education and save us some money.
Having work days of instead of five, an idea made from Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. An Idea like this is, having four work days instead of five, can actually give more beneficial than bad. In places like Japan, where it's always usually busy and productive, bosses let their workers sleep especially if they're sleep deprived and tired,this allows them to perform better at work and throughout the day. This proves that people need more time sleep and rest for them to fully recover for them to recover, having an extra weekend to relax mentally and physically is a great way to have more sanity in people in life. Having four days of work or school can really give people time to fully recover from work and lifestyle.
(Prompt #1)
The suggestion of having four days of labor would've never crossed our minds if we never got tired of our usual five days. Considering the idea is another thing, and from it we can't be sure that we'll benefit. Even though I'm a student and should be wishing for a longer weekend, I say it's not a good idea. A short school or workweek produces a lax mentality. The article gives a report of the Perpetual Guardian earning positive effects from a four day workweek, but I don't expect it to last long. Where I'm from, classes and work get cancelled often because of incoming typhoons. After that, everyone goes back to their regular schedule. Sure there was a burst of energy at the beginning, but when full weeks came back, people got lazy. Life-threatening storms became the norm, and they're sometimes seen as breaks. For the sake of this comment, I admit that I procrastinate on schoolwork, and (sometimes) do them the day before it's due. This is because I'm thinking "I can do it later" or "I still have time to do something else". The weekend is too sweet. We too, are all guilty. In one way or another, we've hated Mondays or wished for the week to end because we have plans or just want alone time. As a result, we continue to think of what we want to do, instead of what we're supposed to do. People only look forward to the weekend. This means a decline in effort and enthusiasm. Even if a four day workweek is applied, people will adjust to a short week and complain about it.
School and workweeks should be brought down to four instead of five. As a high school student with extracurricular's, I feel that I have less time to focus on myself and my school work. The two day weekends are quite short, and I constantly feel crammed with the amount of work needed to get done. As stated by Andrew Barnes "You're not just getting the same productivity, you're getting higher productivity." Not only does that go for workers, but it goes for students, as well. Two days are just not enough with how fast time goes by these days.
Having school and work be shortened to a four day week will increase productivity in class and in a work place. As a student, having an extra day off during the week allows me to catch up and study for any assignment. It'll also allows me to relax and spend time with my friends and family. With a five day school week, I find myself in immense pressure with constant work and projects giving me less time to focus and finish up on college applications, apply to scholarships, research colleges right for me, and study for the SAT. But, having an day off from school will allow me to get extra work done. Both of my parents has rigorous jobs that gives them one day off a week. With them constantly working, they often feel stress and exhausted. My mother sometimes work night shifts which causes her to lose sleep and she would have to work the next day. Having my mother work continuously with the lack of sleep and stress can be detrimental to her health. With both my parents constantly working, they have less time to tend to necessities needed at home like attending school related meetings, shopping for groceries, and dental or doctor's appointments. Therefore, having four days instead of five can be beneficial and have a positive effect on both workers and students. It can improve students productivity and efficiency in class. It can also allow workers to spend more time with their children or tend to home matters.
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
Schools and workweeks should be cut down to four, because that way we will be able to increase work-time to finish our assignments or projects with maximum effort. Plus, we will receive extra time to rest and will be more well prepared for the upcoming assignments. In addition, when we experienced multiple typhoons in one week, it was difficult to catch up on my assignments and having to making sure that every answer was correct, due to the limited use of technology. Although, since our school was being used as a shelter, classes didn’t resume until a later time. As a result, that gave me more time to finish my assignments and had extra time to perform my favorite hobbies. By lessening the amount to four days of schools and workweeks, it would be beneficial for both the person and the organization, because we would be working much more efficiently with the extended amount of time.
In response to the last prompt:
Millennials and Generation Z do prioritize work-life balance over their income, as long as they are making a sufficient amount. Many of us enjoy having free time and wouldn’t mind taking a day off to something fun- as opposed to the generations before us. I interviewed my friends (19 and 20 years old) on which they would prefer (work-life balance or high income with more hours). They both said that work-life balance is more important due to the fact that that time for themselves is crucial. Contradictory to their parent’s beliefs, they do not believe that sacrificing their time for more money is worthwhile. Personally, as a member of Generation Z, I would rather have a job that pays me less and offers more time off as opposed to a job that pays more but requires more work hours. By being incredibly busy with school and work, I realized that time for yourself and what you love is very important, which means that a work-life balance is critical.
The idea of having a four day school week sounds like a very tempting concept to a lot of students. This will allow students to have one extra day off of school to work on their assigned homework and unfinished classwork, this will grant them the time to alleviate the stress that has built up during the weekdays, and It also allows them to interact more with their friends and family. However, this longer weekend allows students to procrastinate for a much longer period of time, which is not a beneficial factor. As a student who is prone to procrastination, I might be taking advantage of this extra day to do other activities instead of utilizing it as an extra day to complete my task. If there were only four days of school, I feel like I would be more attentive at school because I know that the weekend draws closer, and because the weekend is longer, I'll be looking forward to it each day. This also allows us more time to bond with our friends and family, everyday after a tiring day of learning at school, instead of spending time with my family, I go to sleep. Once I have awaken, I do my household chores, when I'm done with that, I eat my dinner alone because I usually wake up when everyone else is done eating, and then I start on my homework. Shortening our school and workdays will be beneficial for students and those around them.
All companies and should adopt a four-day workweek because it will make the employees and students more active in their lives. As a student, every day is a struggle for me to balance my school, social, athletic, work, and personal life. For 6 days a week, I leave my house at 7 am and come home at 8 pm because of school, sports, and work, and I stay up until at least midnight to finish homework. The only time I get any rest is on Sunday, and even then I end up spending most of my time on homework. I never have enough time to focus on myself and what I want to do, such as hobbies and spending quality time with my family. Furthermore, when the school week becoming four days because of a holiday or austerity (In the CNMI, every two weeks there is a half-day on Friday to adjust to government budget cuts), I often find myself being refreshed and more productive in the week. During these weeks I often get a lot more sleep and worry less about the responsibilities I have on my shoulders. I get to relax and truly focus on what is important, what I want, and how to do them. If a four-day school or workweek was implemented, I and others like me would have time to achieve our personal and work objectives efficiently.
If I went to school for only four days a week, my life as a student would change dramatically. Most students today feel pressured every day because of their responsibility as a student. We are expected to learn at school for about 8 hours a day and do homework as well as other activities after school. As a high school student, staying up late to finish my homework after completing other activities became a part of my daily life, and it affected my performance and productivity at school immensely. Having school for four days a week would reduce the time I spend doing my homework so that I can spend more time with my family and friends. The extra day would also allow me to spend time for myself by doing what I enjoy as well as enabling me to relax before another week of school starts. Although we have a two-day weekend to relax before a week starts again, having homework can limit students from enjoying the rest they finally get after a busy week. Therefore, having four days of school would benefit many students by giving them at least a day to be occupied with their hobbies rather than being pressured by school works.
School and work weeks should be reduced to four days instead of five days a week because there are more benefits and productivity of time for people. Personally, the four day school week would be very helpful to me because that would give me more time to rest and spend time with my family and friends. I usually stay home inside my room doing homework, projects, and social media when I am done with them. I spend majority of my time working on projects for my classes and studying for tests. The weekend feels really short to students and workers because there are only two days of free time and the other five days are hard working and studying. It is like Saturday and then Sunday, then all of my friends would be like, "It's already Monday tomorrow?! The weekend felt like a day!" You could already notice how exhausted we are even on the weekends. If we did not have school on Friday, that would make every students and workers happy. I honestly don't know how someone would dislike having a three day weekend and four days of working. A shorter week would give students and workers more motivation to work harder and harder and to always stay strong. It could allow us to spend time without thinking about school and just peacefully rest throwing all the stress away. In conclusion, reducing the school and work week from five days to four will be beneficial for people because it will give them more motivation to work harder and allow them to spend time with their friends and family.
Schools and work should be four days instead of five days. In the article it says that "In Sweden, a two-year experiment found that nurses who worked 30 hours weeks spread over five days were happier and healthier than their counter parts who worked a typical 40-hour week". It shows the benefits of shorten work. The workers are not just happier but also healthier. To me I believe that being healthier is more important then work. By having a healthier body you can be more productive and efficient in your work. I also think that schools should have four days instead of five. I am a student and I sometimes need times to process the things that I learn. It helps me grasp the concept of what I am learning faster and also a better understanding. I think we all need mental breaks sometimes in school.
A shortened week comes with advantages and disadvantages but the cons outweigh the pros. A four day week of either school or work comes with a price to pay; We lose time, money, and interest. With a day away from school, we lose the time to learn another lesson, we lose the time to understand the lesson and away from work we lose the time to complete our assignments. We do not get paid to go to school but the parents of the students, the educators, and other employers lose hours from work. In the CNMI, we have austerity Friday, where government workers don’t have work that day. They lose hours which results in a pay cut. One day taken away may also take away the child’s interest in school work; we tend to be more excited for another day off and forget about the assignments given. When we have a holiday whether it is Monday or Friday, I lose interest in school. I get lazy to go back to school or even do the assignments. On the hand, there are pros that follow the shortened week. We only gain time not money nor interest. We are given more time to spend with friends and family, more time to finish make up work, and more time to relax.
The sound of a three day weekend sounds like a great idea. I mean who wouldn’t like an additional rest day, a day without stress and anxiety. But it has cons too. That is why school and work week should be kept as five days instead of the new invented four days because of the fact that it can affect the wages of the workers and the learning of the students. The idea of a four days work affect the wages of all works because we all know that workers are being paid hourly. It would cut or lessen their salary if they only have few days to work. Especially here in the CNMI, we are currently facing a huge problem we are dealing with austerity and they had to cut the teachers salary what would happen if it’s only going to be a four days workday. It also affects the students learning because there will be more work assigned everyday. It’ll be more stressful.
School weeks should be four days, not five. Schools have long been known to operate on five-day schedules, which, conveniently, happens to align with many parents' schedules. Some may see this as a good thing; I do not. The run-of-the-mill, and frankly, regressive way of arguing against it may be that more time in school means more time and opportunity for productivity. However, more time in school does not exactly mean more time learning. When my community was struck by a typhoon this year, one year back, and four years back, one of my schools had to cancel their normal schedule, opting instead for half-days every day and another school, this time later, canceled classes on Mondays for a couple of weeks before resuming. Each of these times, I found myself learning more information in class (because teachers started cutting out redundant activities and focused on effective and concise instruction) and being allowed to apply that information beyond a classroom. The years in which I went to school on either reduced time or school week were the years I learned to develop more practical skills in learning how to learn thanks to those extra hours. In an age of technology, what's important is not the memorization of facts, but the ability to research further into them. Granting students reduced instructional time means more opportunity for the latter skill to develop.
School- and workweek days should be four days instead of five. From my personal experience, I saw myself getting more things done with an extra day off. I was able to not rush through my work and put in all my effort instead of half of it like I usually do. Because of the limited time we have to complete so many assignments within a two day period, I am not able to finish all of them throughout the weekend, I end up studying during lunch or completing homework last minute during lunch. Since we had two Monday's off in a row the last two weeks, I was able to thoroughly go through all of my work and get them done and even had time to put in a little bit of creativeness into them. When I received my grades for those assignments back, they were actually much better than a grade I would've received in a normal five day school week. I even had time to relax and actually enjoy life and hang out with my friends for a few hours, which was really refreshing. Four-day school weeks bring up academic scores, but also importantly, students can have the time to actually do things that they love and spend more time with their loved ones. We live in a society where students now don't have much time to even check up on themselves or spend a lot of time with their family because they are busy completing many assignments or projects for school, I'm not saying education is bad at all, I'm saying that if we add an extra day off, students can have the time to actually live and be humans.
Just thinking about having a four day work week makes me smile, but although it may seem ideal because of more free time I'll have, I know it won't serve me well in the long run. Having a four day work week means that teachers or higher ups will find ways to get back the time lost. If teachers give load of work during a two day weekend, imagine three. Since it'll be a four day work week, teachers will have to cram enough work during those four days. As much as I despise school, I know that having less of it will just stress both teachers and students. Less days means more work during both weekday and weekend. For the past months, my school has been through many cancelled school days because of storms, this caused many teachers to pack on more work for students for the days lost. As much I want to change the system, it should just be left alone because it's the way it's always been, and it would just cause more stress to both parties.
(Prompt 3) A four-day week for school would be an extremely beneficial change. The shortened schedule allows more time to do homework, which would greatly improve grades and maintain a healthy sleeping schedule. This would be a step up from late night stress and lack of sleep. An extra day off also means another break from working, and the stress that comes with it. This would be very different from the constant five-day routine of hard work. Once I spend more time doing things that fuel my happiness, my good work ethic sharply increases. This is opposed to the struggle of staying up five days a week doing school work.
The five-day weekday system should be kept. A four day weekday would mean an estimate of 32 hours less time of school per month. Of course, this would result in shorter breaks and longer hours of school time per weekday. However, would that be the better choice? We have managed to keep a consistent system of a five day weekday for many years. Would changing the system of a five day weekday to a four day weekday serve any purpose other than to possibly harm a perfect school hour system? Many students would argue that they need the extra day to rest but adding extra hours to the hours of school per day would result in a give or take 10 hours of school per day which would mean that change in the amount of school time would not be significant. Instead of giving students an extra day to relax and go over the things they learned in school, it would further stress the students out because of the longer school hours. Many students might not be able to even remember most of the things they've learned due to exhaustion and the short attention span for some. This could result in harming the students' education. It is also best to be given more time to study right after the end of school. Because of the shortened time to study due to longer school hours, the students would tend to possibly procrastinate and go over the things they've learned during the extra weekend. However, by then, students could forget the several details of what they learned.
Prompt # 1
As a student, I've always looked forward to three-day weekends. Although a four-day workweek sounds like a clever idea, it does not work for every profession and definitely not for every employee. Students may feel relaxed by having an extra day off of school each week but they may also experience a drop in productivity after spending longer class hours in a single day. Businesses could also be put under so much stress and risk. When France switched to shorter work schedules, they found that employees were still spending the same amount of work time each week. However, with the four-day work-week schedule, their employer was now responsible for paying the extra time as overtime wages. In paragraph 8 of this article, it was stated that "Americans were increasingly choosing luxuries over leisure and the only way to get more luxuries was to work more." This is telling us that most of our citizens prefer living a high-quality life which requires them to work for more hours.
Attending school for only four days a week would have a substantial impact on my life. Mainly due to the fact that I grew up with a five days a week school schedule. There's a huge chance that I would be more productive within school subjects and activities because of the increase of time for sleep, hehe. And having more rest would definitely boost my enthusiasm, optimism, and lastly my creativity. I know for a fact that I would do more things that I enjoy outside of school AND of course waste more time too. For instance, we just came back from a three day weekend and I was filled to the brim with such energy, I was 'shooketh'. Anyways, I had so much rest that I was more focused and was actually participating during class discussions. My life would change big time with this occasion because I would basically have additional leisure time for myself. I'd have added time to finish projects and work, and would even have some time to do other stuff of my liking.
Four day work days a week has been experimented through out the years. The issue with lowering the work days is that the amount of working hours may remain the same being from around 40 to 50 average hours. Meaning even if it were to become four work days a week the employees might be suffering from more stress than before due to having to work more than the amount of hours they used to work before. It would not help productivity at all and will cause workers to be more vulnerable to falling ill. If schools were to have only four school days a week what might happen is we might cut down on holidays such as spring break and winter break being shorter due to less school days. As said in the article,"Some barriers are institutional and some are cultural. And then there’s the most human reason of all: inertia." Our reluctant behavior to change has caused many troubles to keep happening and possibly become worse. A four day week of school, if it were to not shorten any holidays, would cause productivity to increase. The leisure time given to students may help them relax and have a less stressful environment.
"Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?"
- School and workweek should stick to a five-day productive week instead of shortening it to a four-day workweek. Others may believe that with a four-day workweek we would get enough time to do work and give us more time to rest, however, as great as that sounds, it also allows you become less productive than you would be with a five-day workweek. Speaking from personal experience, from all the unexpected breaks I had from canceled school days or holidays, I thought it would give me time to finish up my work but instead, it only made me lazier and less productive as I would think to myself that I had a lot of time. With a four-day workweek, it would only cause teachers to cram all their lessons and students would be assigned more homework due to the short amount of time the teachers had of assigning work on a regular five-day workweek. and for regular workers, they would still need to continue working even if they have a three day weekend because they have bills to pay. Therefore, with a five-day workweek, I would have enough motivation and drive to finish up my work and spare the remaining days to have a short break for myself even if it is just for two days.
I would rather have a 4-day week instead of 5. A shorter week allows the brain to take time to relax and actually focus on things that might otherwise be obscured with a busy 5 day week. At this time and age, everyone needs a source of income to survive. In the current months of my hometown, the economy has indeed gone down, forcing some employees to take more days off. My parents were among these. I agree our source of income may have shortened by a fair bit but things have been rocky around the house before this happened. Kids have been fairly absorbed with their school work while parents are frustrated between work and house duties. Tension would rise as one makes a mistake and outbursts happen frequently. With the extra day off my parents realized that some of it may have been their fault, they spent the extra time relaxing and getting involved with problems that us children may have. We learned to return their love as well. I agree with working hard and making a good source of income. But some need to differentiate between surviving and actually living what you want. Working 4 stupendous days then relaxing 3 is a good way to earn a living while enjoying your life, don't ever waste your one life in just earning, sometimes the important things aren't what you think they are. Money doesn't buy everything.
Working is a means to an end it, and it always has been. If it wasn't I wouldn't do anything. There's a reason to do some work. Homework, my teacher gives homework and I complete it to get good grades, so I can I can become successful. Or for example when I'm working on some house work I'm doing so that my mom doesn't complain. This all pretty much shows that work always has a reason, whether it's for fun, cleanliness, or money. It's the end that gets people to get up and go somewhere or get something. Therefore it's a means.
School days should be five days in a week. According to Lori Seinbach, a certified educator on eNotes, it is difficult to stuff five days of learning into four days and having five days of school can keep the mind fresh and motivated to learn. Based on my personal experience, having a busy weekend makes me forget parts of the lesson from the previous week. With school being five days, the mind can stay fresh and motivated to learn for the next week. Having four days of school would shorten leisure time and it would be hard for educators to make more money.
Living on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific, a shorter workweek may increase productivity but will put huge average families at a risk. Knowing that the workplace in the CNMI highly consists of contract workers, they depend on their minimum-wage jobs to support themselves and their families. Stated in the article, "Americans were increasingly choosing luxuries over leisure and the only way to get more luxuries was to work more." This specific statement in the article is exactly why people not only in the CNMI and around the world work more. Individuals work more to gain a good salary to buy luxuries that please their lives. Therefore, cutting off the workweek in places around the world will be challenging and would take years to be enforced in the workplace.
The idea of having 4 days instead of 5 will surely make a lot of people happy. There has already been places where this method of 4 days instead of 5 have been tested, an example of this is in Japans work environment, they have implemented the 4 day work day and they have been seeing positive results. Microsoft Japan has been telling stories about this method, they have said that it has improved the productivity of the workers by 40 percent. This can also relate to the school system in Finland, the similarity does not come from the people in these groups, but the time. The education system in Finland focuses on breaks in between sessions, they focus on keeping the students mind fresh and ready to learn, this is why Finland has the best education system in the whole world. If Finland education system focuses on breaks for the students, and still happens to be one of the best schools, then this should be transferred to the work force, if humans work well with breaks, then companies should reinforce this 4 day work environment if they want their workers to be as productive as possible.
The school and workweek should be shortened to four days because of the productivity of students and employees. In the article, it says that "Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent". Learning in school and working in a company both require productivity. Learning or working without any productivity means you have nothing as a result of learning and working. Regarding the facts, productivity is an essential thing that students and employees should have. And if there is a way to increase productivity, it is wise to use the method. The effective method presented in the article is by shortening the workweek for four days, which is the way that school and company should take. The author also notes "About two-thirds of workers favor a compressed workweek". When workers work by the workweeks that they prefer, it might help increase their productivity in their workplace, the same for the students. The article, actually states that when the Microsoft company changed the workweeks to how the workers preferred, it boosted their productivities.
Though we are already used to only having a 2 day weekend, it wouldn’t be so bad to get an extra day. An extra day to spend time with your family and relax. The school and work week should be shortened to four days because it is proven in many cases that a shorter week boosts performance in the professional setting. The article mentions an experiment that took place in a New Zealand firm, Perpetual Guardian. The experiment was to shorten a five day week to a four day one as well as reduce the hours. Results were extremely positive. With their hours reduced to 32, the 240 employees had a 24 percent increase in work-life balance and showed an improvement in productivity. The experiment proves that it is a positive thing to have a four day week because it does not negatively affect the employees or the business. In fact, due to this experiment, it shows that it would have an extremely positive effect on the entire company.
The prompt I have chosen is "Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?".
The source in which my evidence is based off is "education.seattlepi.com".
I believe that a four day weekend will be a positive change and a beneficial one. Having one more day of school off can reduce stress and allow teachers and students more time to relax and gives them the opportunity to be productive. It has been also shown that attendance can be improved as shown by The Melstone School District in Melstone, who's attendance went up by 20% in a two year period, and Chattogga County School District who has also seen an improvement in their attendance using a four day school week. It has also been seen that academic improvement has been seen in schools like Oakridge School District, where Superintendent Don Kordosky has reported that test scores have improved after using a four day schedule. Peach County in Fort Valley, Ga. has also seen an increase in graduation since donning the four day weekend schedule. Lastly, it will reduce the financial costs of school systems since they do not have to budget for fuel, it reduces utilities costs, and reduces the costs of school lunches and breakfasts by 20%.
But of course, there are downsides to a four day weekend as shown by brandongaille.com. Some cons include creating scheduling concerns for many families and reducing or even eliminating school holidays in some districts.
How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? What else?
If I went to school for only four days a week, I would be more productive at school. Knowing that I'd have a long break motivates me enough to finish all my school work. Having 5 days of school a week is difficult because of time management. As a soccer player, I have multiple training's a week and sometimes they end as late as 9pm. So most of the time, I'd have to stay up to finish all the work that I was given. Given more time during the week, I'd get much more things done in a timely matter. Right now, my life is pretty stressing. I have four campus classes and two online classes. Adding on to my stress is going to my soccer training and attending league games. Doing homework and turning in my online work in time is manageable. Though, if I only went to school for four days, best believe a lot of weight will be lifted from my shoulders.
When comparing the benefits and the detriments of a shorter week, the pros mostly outweigh the cons. The biggest disadvantage that most would argue is that pay would be cut. Chokshi stated that “Americans were increasingly choosing luxuries over leisure ant the only way to get more luxuries was to work more,” and with the per hour system that is commonly used, the shorter week will produce less money for the worker. But that tiny loss can easily be compensated with a long term reward, a healthier life, one of the United States’ national priorities. Stress can lead to many physical and mental illnesses, such as heart diseases, anxiety, and depression. Statistics from the American Institute of Stress show that about 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress, which has so far caused 120,000 deaths and about $190 billion in healthcare costs yearly. There are seven days in a week, and in a shorter workweek, four of those days will be for work and the remaining three would be for personal leisure. This will most likely help improve these devastating numbers and promote workers to take this time to improve their health and personal life. A short term loss is minuscule compared to the long term reward, in which millions of people will benefit from, and something America should worth considering.
By having a four- day workweek, it can benefit the workers. Now, hear me out, having a four- day week may be exhausting, but the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. In the article, it gave an example on what happened to the workers who did a trial of a four- day workweek, "Last year, for example, a New Zealand estate planning advisory firm with about 240 employees earned headlines around the world after finding that a trial four-day week had boosted performance." The results showed that performance had boosted, and now the business permanently changed the workweek. By having the workweek shortened, it favors the employees as well, "And a poll conducted last year by The Workforce Institute, a think tank at Kronos, a maker of work force management software, found that 34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day workweek compared to 28 percent who were happy with a five-day one." This shows that workers, though faced with cramped deadlines, prefer having shortened weeks. By having workers face a shorter deadline, productivity improves and the employees get a longer weekend to relax. A win-win situation for both the company and the employees.
Based on my personal perspective, I believe that if PSS were to covert our 5 days of school to 4 days of school, I would be more aware of time management regarding assignments and certain lessons that would be taught. In addition, I believe that I will also gain more time towards homework and my personal life in general. I take an online class and I join clubs such as Chorale and my school's volleyball team. With that being said, a lot of time, effort, and energy is being consumed. When I get arrive home, my energy level decreases greatly depending on what club I had practice on and I do my best to keep awake and complete my assignments as thorough and as quick as possible to gain more time and energy the next morning or day of school. If we were to have 4 days of school, I'd be less stressed due to the fact that I would have 3 days of break and time where I can complete my assignments with more effort and less time of anxiety towards time management. Say classes ended specifically on a Thursday, I would have more time on Friday by waking up early to complete all my assignments or most of them and sleep early to complete the rest on the weekends. I will also have the opportunity to study more and have some quality time with my family members. If having a four day week of school came to existence, I'd be glad to experience it.
Some regions of the United States has been using a 4-day school and work week for the past decade. And some claim that a 4-day school and work week are just as productive if not more. However, it is important to note that this outcome does not generate in some regions of the United States. In order to uphold efficincy, the CNMI ought not advocate for a 4- school or work week. The claim that a 4-day school week is productive is a misleading claim that does not apply for the general public in the CNMI. Using a 4-day school week will result in a decline in academic performance for the CNMI because of all the days students are missing school. The CNMI is located in a region vulnerable to many typhoons and other natural disasters. Students are already missing out because of the recent typhoons. Having a 4-day school and work week will only increase the number of days students miss school and add more days to make up which only increases the duration of the schoolyear. The same applies for work schedules. Instead of increasing efficiency, employees will be forced to delay their assigned tasks. Workers will not be able to finish their work because of all the time they spend at home instead working. And like the article said, "We value work as an end in itself" which is why it would force workers in the CNMI to carry their unfinished work home which only results in the withdrawal of their individual free time. This is why in the CNMI, we should not use a 4-day school or work week.
I disagree with cutting down school/workweek to 4 days. Some people believe that a shorter school/worktime with a longer rest would be better than a short rest and a longer school/worktime because you would have less work to do, but I don't think so. The amount of work we would have at school wouldn't change; in fact, we may have more homework because of the short amount of time we have at school. The amount of schoolwork we have to cover wouldn't change even if we have a four-day schoolweek, so teachers would have to give us more homework. Plus, I believe that decreasing a school/workday would increase laziness.
Working four days rather than five days brings good sleep, higher work quality, and efficiency. According to EU statistics in 2015, about 19% of employees work at least have one-night shift every month. The changing shift forced the interruption of the normal sleep-wake cycle, resulting in shortened sleep time and excessive fatigue but when you have another day of rest on weekend you can have a good rest in this spare day and also you can finish other personal work that you have and when you have to go to work, you can finish the work at hand faster and achieve faster work efficiency and quality than working five days a week.
PART 1
The idea of having a four day work week has been on the minds of many employees for over two decades, when Juliet Schor, a professor at Boston College, had written about shortening the work week in her book The Overworked American, written in 1993. In her book, she writes that Americans work longer hours now than they did before World War II. As of 2019, the average American works about 50 hours per week. By decreasing the work days to four per week, companies will see an increase in their employees’ productivity and employees can spend more time with their families. However, four day work weeks can cause stress and may lead to chronic diseases if overworked. In 2018, the New Zealand firm Perpetual Guardian, implemented the four day work week on their 240 employees. During this experiment, the employees stated that they have spent more time with their families doing household activities such as cooking and gardening. In addition, the Perpetual Guardian saw a 24% increase in productivity because of the shortened work week. Being able to spend more time with loved ones over the extended weekends and seeing an increase in work productivity demonstrates how a four day work week can benefit the employees and their employers. But, not all is well with a shortened work week. Allard Dembe, a professor of public health in the Ohio State University, states that working long hours can cause stress and illness.
According to his study with colleague Xiaoxi Yao, “women working more than 60 hours per week, equivalent to 12 hours per day, were more than three times as likely to eventually suffer heart disease, cancer, arthritis or diabetes, and more than twice as likely to have chronic lung disease or asthma, as women working a conventional 40-hour workweek.” Because the work week is shortened to four days, the hours will increase depending on the company. In addition, he states, “I performed a study showing that the risk of suffering an industrial accident is raised by 37 percent for employees working more than 12 hours in a day. The risk is 61 percent higher for people in “overtime” shifts. Working more than 60 hours in a week is related to an additional injury risk of 23 percent. As the hours worked in those schedules increase, the risks grow accordingly.” Being stressed, overworked, and having the possibility of developing a disease when dealing with a four day work week schedule demonstrates how dangerous it can be to implement the shortened work week into the work space.
In response to the first prompt, I would rather have a five day school work than four. The reason why because I grew accustomed to this tradition. Adding on to that, the pros of this act towers over the cons. I can't sit through with the thought of having a three day weekend. Sure, it is good in some way like having more time to finish school works such as homework and projects. However, there are some drawbacks to this; for example, procrastination. I tend to put off the work if it's a long day weekend because I want to spend the most of my weekend which is bad. When CNMI was struck by typhoon Yutu, we had to halt classes for two months because there wasn't enough power to lit up the school and little water supply. During this time period, I missed learning because every single day I gain new knowledge from different awesome teachers; not only that, but I learn new things about myself. Having a two day weekend means having to work smartly by balancing leisure time and work time, it also prevents procrastination.
PART 3/3
The pros in this case do not outweigh the cons because the number one priority of a person should be themselves. If a person were to work 12 hours, as Allard Dembe said, they are likely to have chronic health issues if the work week is shortened and work hours are extended; spending time with your family does not cure your potential health issues if the work week is changed to four days. If the productivity rates have increased, like the Perpetual Guardian, the amount of employees who will eventually be ill will increase as well if the work week is shortened and work hours are extended.
It’s beneficial for schools and work to have a five-day work week rather than four. In the CNMI, we are currently experiencing the government offices operating on a four-day workweek schedule. It’s appalling to government workers because they lose hours. Before austerity, people had their usual weekly routine. They relied on their income to support their living, like we all do. However, when austerity began in the CNMI, everyone’s lives changed drastically. It took people time to adjust to their lower income and some had to look for part time jobs because they couldn’t survive the four-day work week. Fortunately, austerity will be ending soon and the government will be back to the regular five-day workweek. It’s vital for the CNMI to have a five-day workweek because not many people are as lucky and as wealthy as others. Some live paycheck by paycheck, and the cut in hours definitely affected them the most.
By the natural allure of rest and relaxation, people are more likely to choose long weekends as opposed to shorter weekends. However, we must not forget the value of more school and work days, just because of the sweet temptations that the sin of sloth whispers into our ear. The more days we have to work and learn, the more our skills and knowledge will grow. We must also not forget about the families struggling to get money and good education to secure a good future. The hard-working teachers and students' efforts will be all for nothing if their jobs and schools don't even give them enough time to learn or earn money. However, there is nothing wrong with taking time to relax and practice self-care, as long as you don't dwell for too long in stagnation. There's no denying that work and school are stressful, for we have to manage our work life as well as our social relationships with our peers and our own happiness. It is especially stressful for teenagers, for they have to decide on their future as well as survive the emotional trials and tribulations that is adolescence. Balancing out duties and self-care is integral to living an "ideal" life of happiness. I believe that we should extend the weekend, however, 4 days is not enough time for us to work and learn, and 5 is out of the question. Extending the weekend to 3 days gives stressed students and workers 1 day to do any unfinished work and 2 more to relax, or 2 days to finish work and 1 day to relax.
I think that the school/ workweek should be four days instead of five, because it increases productivity, like the articles says. I think a four day school/ workweek would relieve a lot more stress because we would get an extra day to ourselves. I think that if I went to school for only four days a week, I would be more productive at school. I think that I would also spend more time doing what I enjoy outside of school.
School and workweek should be cut down to four days a week instead of five. This way, our leisure time and work times can be balanced out. Personally, I have a lot of responsibilities that I carry on my shoulders and even my day offs are spent doing some sort of work whether it be chores, homework, or going to my part-time job. An extra day off allows me to have more time for myself, and more time to complete my tasks without stress or pressure. Having more leisure time allows me be more motivated and happy as I don't have so much work to worry about and it allows me to work more efficiently. Students get very drained during the school year and therefore, tend to slack off when it comes to doing assignments as they have lost their motivation because of how exhausted they are. When we lost a few school days due to typhoons, I had more time to do things I enjoyed and I also was able to complete my assignments with my best effort. Having 4 days of school or work also cuts down the amount money we use on gas since we have to travel less. We also have less clothes to put in the laundry since we have an extra day of not dressing up. Schools could also save money on school lunch and other finances by cutting down the days of school which could lead to a better education. Having 4 days of school is a dream come true for many people because not only is it more exciting to have less work days, but it has many benefits especially when it comes to working efficiently.
If students were to attend school for four days instead of five, students would be more productive and would be able to produce higher-quality school work. In my opinion, as a student, having a three-day break from school would be beneficial, since having more time to complete homework and projects is a must. From my experience, I have noticed that it takes me a while to complete work. Thus sparked the need for an additional day, since having more time would result in higher-quality assignments. Some students, however, have other matters to attend to, which may hinder their ability to produce high-quality work. On the contrary, others believe that an additional day is not necessary, which is reasonable. However, it would not hurt to have an extra day for self-care after a long day of work!
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
School- and work week should be four days a week instead of five days. Being kept as five days a week not only stresses ourselves, but also to the people around us. In the article, it states, " In Sweden, a two-year experiment found that nurses who worked 30-hour weeks spread over five days were happier and healthier than counterparts who worked a typical 40-hour week, though it came at a cost as new workers had to be hired." Getting paid less for only working 30 hours a week may be worth more that 40 hours a week. You not only have more time to spend time with your friends and family, but you can also become happier and be more productive than other people. It also works for students; I am a high school student in the CNMI, and I also have a job. Going to school five times a week while having a job is stressful. I go to work at 4:30 P.M and I get off at 10:45 P.M. It takes me 20 minutes to go home. However, I can't go straight to sleep. I have to finish homework that are due the next day, so I sleep at around 12. Having to go to school four four days a week can help me get more sleep, but also become more productive than I already am.
As typhoon season in the Marianas commenced, one factor was inevitable, shortened instructional periods. Classes get canceled, and while it may feel like a burden lifted off one's shoulder, I tend to contradict. As a student myself, I prefer to keep our schedules as is for the betterment and consistent progression of all. My routine and personal life, in particular, would significantly be altered, seeing that everything is built off school schedules. During the most recent typhoon, I sat at my usual workstation, cold and mindless. I wondered what would happen if I were at school. Dozing off as the hours passed, school finally dawned upon me. Then, a feeling comes to mind, a sense of unwillingness derived from the missed instruction time. I had grown with a reluctance to attend class. Because of the absence of my usual assignments, I had gradually become less productive and optimistic about partaking in lessons. This event made me question what would the other aspects of my day-to-day routine look like with a day off from the usual schedule, let alone an entire typhoon watch. The potential knowledge the several hours at school possesses would utterly be eliminated. I cannot imagine how I would be gradually submitting myself to the laziness that that off day rules on me. At this moment, cutting down the five-day workweek by one would be a major step back. Sure, the spare time can grab me a cup of coffee, but I cannot picture my weeks without that extra day of instruction.
The thought of a three day weekend be a relief and would be wonderful to have. Extra days to relax, spend time with friends and family, and finish left over work that was given during the weekdays. It would feel relaxing when the time comes, but will it really be worth it at the end? If four day weekends would actually occur it may actually result in a lot of drawbacks and disadvantages. Four day weekends will not change the fact that bills need to be payed. Four day weekends will shorten your work schedule resulting in a smaller pay check. This would affect jobs such as teachers or government lead jobs in general. If workers find themselves working overtime this would render a four day weekend to be practicully useless in this case. Four day weekends will also result in less vacation days for schools as well as more stress. Four day weekends will not change the fact that schools are required to give a specific number instructional days. In my school, Marianas High School, 180 days are required every school year. If four day weekends were to take place it would remove some days of break. If break days would remain the same, then students and teachers would have to change their whole lesson plan or cram it to a more limited amount of days. All will result in a major level of stress and anxiety for teachers and students. Four day weekends seems like a good idea, but when facing the facts it would seem more ethical to stick to the traditional five day weekend plane.
"How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? What else?"
Personally, I believe that if I was required to only attend classes for four days a week I would be more productive at school. In addition, I would have more time to work on assignments at home and have time to enjoy things in life. I'm a 17 year old high school student and recently my schedule has gotten very busy; waking up at 7:00 A.M to go and attend school for about 8 hours followed by club duties that pile up an additional 4 hours. Nowadays I arrive home at 9:00 only to be greeted by homework that is due the next day. If schools opted for four instructional days then I would have an extra day to do assignments and or projects at home, spend time with friends and family, and most importantly have time by myself to relax and recharge. After having three days off, I'd most likely feel more energized on Monday as opposed to the conventional five days of school. I'd be looking forward onto tackling the next challenging week, and so on. Overall, having four days off of school would be like taking off a portion of the weight I have to carry on my back as a student and, in the future, a member of society. I am on board for having only four days of school/work and I hope that becomes a reality one day.
PROMPT:
Do you think the school - and workweek should be 4 days instead of 5? Why or why not?
School and work days should be kept as it is now, five days of going to school and work. People consider of getting a shorter week because of how tiring it is to do it. However, the thing with having a shorter week may lead to laziness, less exercise, etc. Nowadays, people tend to use their gadgets most of time every single day and never taking their eyes off of them. In paragraph thirteen, it states, "In some cases, the typical 40-hour workweek is merely redistributed over four days. In others, a day of the week is simply removed, resulting in fewer hours worked. Sometimes pay is cut, sometimes it remains the same." This is quite true when you're working and happens to many people. Even I see this happen to a friend of mine, if they miss a few days of work, their paycheck gets cut. People need money in order to provide themselves or their families with the things they need. So if the amount of days gets cut, more people would get less money than they would usually get and would also cause a problem in currency.
School weeks and work weeks should not be four days, and should stick to the five days. Many students and adults work just fine without needing to have an extra day to relax. A person would also receive more work to do on the weekend if it is longer, resulting in the same amount of stress. Also, if the same habits are kept by people throughout the week, such as procrastination and staying up late, then there is no point in extending the free time that people have. With the proper rest and time-management, anyone can work their hardest without overdoing it.
The school and work week should be four days instead of five because it allows both students and workers to have an extra day to relax and focus on doing things they love with people they love, rather than practicing their daily and mundane routine of going to school or work. During the month of October, classes were cancelled on Mondays because of hazardous weather conditions. However, during these day-offs, I was finally able to spend more time with my family. We bonded by watching a movie and eating all three meals together! With a full five-day school week, I would go home after extra curricular activities but then complete given homework. My parents had similar experiences. After a long day of work, they wanted to enjoy their hobbies but would fall asleep before being able to watch their favorite Filipino teleseryes. Five days of school and work can be both exhausting and stressful for students and workers, like me and my parents. We would only have two days of the week to do what we truly wanted to do, like spending time with each other. With an extra day to enjoy and truly relax, my whole family was less stressed. A shorter work week allows students and workers to become motivated to return to their routines and efficiently fulfill their assignments. Thus, reducing the school and work week from five days to four will be beneficial for people because they can enjoy without society requiring anything from them, like my parents and I when we had a day off.
I believe that school weeks should be four days instead of five and that the pros of shortened workweeks outweigh the cons. As a student, with the immense pressure and heavy workload, free time for fun and rest appears to be a luxury. However, in November, we had no school for two Mondays because of federal holidays, thus granting me a three-day weekend to finish homework, get enough sleep, do chores, and have fun with friends. On a usual two-day weekend, I would have to stay up on Saturdays and/or Sundays as a consequence of having fun and sleeping for nine hours. Then, once Monday hits, I can honestly say that I have no energy and enthusiasm whatsoever to solve for x and y and analyze classical texts. However, after the three-day weekend, I felt more determined to work hard for the rest of the week because I was satisfied with the extra time I had on the weekend. Therefore, I believe that shortened workweeks will improve productivity and the overall well-being of workers and students.
In response to the first prompt:
The prospect of a four-day workweek seems very unusual, in my opinion. However, I am willing to contend that a four-day weekend is beneficial to both students and workers, and can have positive effects on business and morale. I'm sure that many schools worldwide observe some sort of national holiday (Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Independence Day, etc.). The school I attend observes these days with a day off from our usual workweek (usually on Mondays this year). While this day off wasn't an intentional choice made by any school officials, it still had the same positive effect alleged by those who support a four-day workweek. I, along with many other students at my school, enjoyed this day off not just because it gave us a break from school, it also gave us extra time to study and work on our assignments. While there is no quantifiable evidence to prove that this will be the case for all students, I can now understand the possible benefits a four-day workweek for students. A four-day workweek could benefit adults as well by allowing more time for personal matters. Both my parents work very demanding and time-intensive jobs. I often find them rushing on their days off to take care of things like paying bills and buying groceries. I think that they, along with many other workers, can benefit from having more time dedicated to making sure their necessities are taken care of. I think a four-day workweek is worth experimenting within our lives.
I will be talking bout the advantages and the disadvantages about the 4 day week. Advantages are we can have more time to rest physically and mentally more before the week starts again. on a kid's perspective, they rather want to stay home than going to school. As a teen, i'm always stress with work and needed more time to do work or rest in general. The disadvantages are that we won't have a lot of time to do to the curriculum. Having a 5 day week makes us have more time to learn the content objectives and the language objectives. people who wants to go to a great college may want to stay and have more time to learn and achieve their goals. I would say that the advantages don't outweighs or the disadvantages do as well. I rather say that they are pretty neutral to me because i have a lot of mixed feelings about these. I'm a person who wants to learn a lot but i also don't want to do it all the time 24/7.
Workweeks should be 4 days instead of 5. Microsoft Japan claims to have seen a 40% increase in productivity while other people think that there should not be 4 days of school or 4 days of work in workweek because they feel that it is too short and they think it might encourage laziness among students and workers. 4 days a week can be very beneficial for students for example, us students, can have more time to refine and do our work over the weekend. An extra day of free time could also give children and their parents more time to spend together which can strengthen relationships. It can also allow people to have more time to focus on themselves and improve their character in any way such as physically, mentally, and even spiritually. There are many other advantages of a 4 day workweek such as businesses can save more money, less stress, and decrease sleep deprivation in students and workers. On the whole. I strongly agree that there should be 4 days in a workweek instead of 5 so that there is a balance when it comes to peoples work and daily lives.
Longer weekends should be adopted for both work and school. While some might claim that it will make people lazy, or will actually lower productivity, the article illustrates how four ten-hour work days has been shown to greatly increase productivity, with Microsoft Japan getting a 40% boost.
Furthermore, four day work weeks are even more beneficial, as they are shown to improve the health and sleeping habits of workers. A meta-analysis of studies on four day weeks by the Lancet shows that shorter work weeks reduces the chances of coronary heart diseases, and your productivity won’t be very high if all of your workers are dead. Another paper, published by the journal Sleep, shows that shorter weeks correlate with a better sleep schedule, which will further lead to worker health increasing and mood improving.
All in all, the benefits of lowering the work week to four days vastly outweigh the costs, and should become the norm across the world.
I do not want a career that I hate. If my career pays amazing yet I despise it then I will not enjoy what could take up a vast majority of my time. If I enjoy the career then it will not feel like a job and I may not care about the reduced free time. If my job is high paying and I enjoy it then what little time I have away from my job which I love already can be spent using and buying expensive thing, eating at five star restaurants, or enjoying a luxurious hotel. If I have a job with a lot of free time and little pay yet I despise it then I will have a lot of time to do things I enjoy doing but I may not have the money or the financial security to be able to do the things I enjoy. But if I enjoyed the job then the enjoyment from doing something I love and making money from it may just outweigh the smaller amount of money I have.
I think that all schools and places of business should adopt a four day work week. Students don’t get enough free time as it is. I rarely have time to hang out with my friends during the week or do fun activities. Kids are being overworked at schools. We get too much homework and kids these days are just so busy with school and other activities that we never get to do things we like. This is really sad because the fact of the matter is that we are just kids and we don’t get free time to live our lives as kids. Childhood should be a time of great experiences and relaxation because once you are an adult, you have to work even more. Our generation really struggles with mental health and school is definitely partly to blame. If we adopted a four day work week, everyone would feel less stressed. Some people think that too much time would be lost but I think people would feel better and be more productive. I do think Americans value work a little too much. All they do is work and work until they drop dead or retire but at that point you have lost a ton of time. Many kids rarely get to see their parents because they work so much. I would rather have a job that pays less but I get more free time because my mental health would be really good.
I think that there should be a 4 day work week. It will give students a break in the middle of the week to catch up on homework assignments and study for tests. Even though it may seem that 4 days is not enough for middle schoolers to learn the necessities, the days that we do have in school will be more productive. Students will be more awake and will be ready to start the day. In all, I think that there should be a 4 day work week for middle and high schoolers.
@Elizabeth Sevrukov
I think that you have some great points and it does not only apply to middle schoolers and highschooler‘s. This four-day week will help everyone if it’s the work environment to be a stay at home parent. It will help relieve stress and make people happier I did not even think about how that’ll keep kids awake and adults at their jobs a week. You have to be awake to get stuff done and with the extra day off it will help you get more rest which will keep you awake to get more stuff done.
I believe that the school and work week should be four days instead of five as it’s been proven that more rest and down time leads to more productivity. I also think that students and workers would have more time to invest in their own skills and interests. Advantages of this would be increased productivity, however a disadvantage would be lower pay (due to fewer hours), and the school year needing to be lengthened to get through the entirety of the content. In my opinion though, the extra rest would make a huge difference across the board. I do believe I would be more productive at school with a shorter week, however it is something us as students would get used to quickly causing productivity to drop again. I believe that the school system encourages good grades at any cost and pushes the idea of college heavily. Me and many of my fellow students feel as though school is more about memorization than learning. I completely agree that younger generations are focusing more on balancing school or work and their personal lives and I think that is very important, whether that means focusing more on academics of themselves.
I would rather work really hard and get more money because that would mean that I could do better things when I have time off. So lets say I worked 5 or 6 days a week. That would mean that with that money I earned, I can do many more things like go somewhere or do something that is a little more expensive. On the other hand, if I worked less, like 3 days a week but got less money, I would have more time to myself, but could not do fun things that are expensive. A thing that my dad always told me was, “Life is not easy. If you work and go through all the hardships you face, you will be rewarded greatly.” So I always listen to that.
I think that the school and work-week should be four instead of five. After reading the article, I think this would improve productivity and allow for a balanced work and home-life. Some advantages to the shorter week would be increase in productivity, more time for other tasks, and allowing employees and students to get more rest. Some disadvantages might include a loss in valuable work time, less pay for employees, and some might abuse their time off in the wrong way.
I think my life would be much more balanced. I think I would be much more focused and productive at school without feeling burnt-out. I would use my time off to do things I might not usually have time for in my every-day life, such as chores and spending time with my family. In the article, Benjamin Hunnicutt mentions that we as Americans "value work as an end in itself." I agree with this statement because I don't believe that work is all there is to life, but I also think that it is important to work hard for the things that you want.
I agree with the article when it says that my generation prioritizes work-life balance over pay. I think that we see the value and benefits of a balanced life. On the other hand, I also know that many people of my generation are willing to work hard in order to be successful. In my future career, I would like to be payed what I earn, but retain a balance in my life. I would like to be successful in the future and work in a profession that I enjoy.
Increased productivity and efficiency, boosted morale, improved retention and lower overhead costs are just a few reasons why the four-day work week is essential to everyday people. The plan benefits employees as well as employers and could be the key to retaining a younger, millennial workforce. Millennials, also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation, are defined as people born between 1981 and 1996. It is estimated that by next year, at least half of the workforce will be made up of millennials. This group is notorious for job swapping at the first sign of neglect, so employers are working hard to increase job satisfaction to improve retention rates. Offering schedule flexibility while providing regular encouragement is key to keeping employees happy. Additionally, millennials are environmentally conscious and driving to work four days a week instead of five significantly decreases air pollutants. Employers not only get to keep their employees, but it’s scientifically proven that happy employees work harder and more efficiently.
I believe that we should stick to the five-hour workweek. Now hear me out, don’t click away yet. I think that this data is, well, wrong. These workers were presented with an unusual situation, something out of the usual in a good way. If this became regular, it would lose its novelty and people would work the same amount each day. I think a better move would be to open the office two hours later than usual on Monday and close it an hour earlier on Friday. This would really help morale out on those days because instead of being exhausted and grouchy on Monday, they could come in with a smile. And instead of waiting for the second-hand to say it’s five to rush out to the bar, workers could take their time, as they wouldn’t be at the bar before 6PM anyways.
I do think that school/workweeks should be shortened to four days. I think this because the extra day could be better for mental health, work ethic, and maybe even time management. Some advantages would be less stressed because you’d spend less time at work/school, more time to do assignments, and more free time. Some disadvantages would be that the teachers would cover less in class and may give more work. But the pros most definitely outweigh the cons. I think that I would be a better student if I went to school for 4 days a week because I’d get more work done and I would be more well rested. I would be more productive at school because it would be easier since there is way less time spent there. I would do more and get out more with the extended free time. Maybe I would pick up a new hobby or activity. And I could waste time, but I’d have time for both meaningful activity and lounging around with the extra day. I see working as an obstacle to the high life. I want to be able to have plenty of money and a cushy life, but in order to get it, I have to put in work. I don’t see a job as something I would just have for the fun of it, I see as a requirement to get what I want in life. This is because hard work shouldn’t be fun, it should be hard. Otherwise, why would I work if I could just have what I wanted without the long hours?
I believe we should have a four day week instead of a five day week. The extra day off could be used to our advantage whether it’s catching up on sleep, doing homework, or just plain relaxing. I think with the amount of work we do for five straight days, we deserve more than a two day break. It’s scientifically proven that we’re more successful when having a four day week as opposed to five, so why don’t we do it? It could be the cure to adolescents sleep deprivation and all that missing work to catch up on.
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
I think that the school and workweek should be 4 days instead of 5 because most students and adults at school and work are often stressed and have a lot of work to do, so I think that students and adults both need a better ratio between days at school and days off.
What might be some of the advantages and disadvantages of a shortened week? In your opinion, do the pros outweigh the cons?
The advantages of a shortened week is that there is a better ratio between workdays and off days giving workers and students more rest for their brain and body and overall be better. Some disadvantages of a shortened week are that there could be less work done for companies and there would also be less work done for schools. Some more disadvantages are that if someone needs a good or service, the store could be closed because of the new 4 day weekend. I think that the advantages outweigh the advantages for now, but if we get adjusted, it could be a great advantage.
Students spend about 7 hours in school and go to school for about 250 days every year. That means that we spend most of our lives in school. This is not counting the times that students hide themselves in a room doing homework and studying. I think that making school days four days instead of five will be much better. I think that there will be an improvement in students' health and moods. This also gives students more time to join extra curricular activities and go out with friends or just spend time with family. As for work weeks, I am not sure whether it should be four days or five. I think this because some people want to work more for more money so they can afford to help themselves and their families. Although, others might want four business days so they too, can spend time with family or just spend time with themselves.
I think the week should be four days because of the following reasons. One, on the off day of school students could get more work done and be more productive, two, it will be less stressful and give kids a day to just stay at home or do other extracurricular activities, third, allows kids to get more sleep and recharge for next week, fourth, allows teachers to grade papers and plan thought out lessons for the next school day, and fifth, it is a time for kids and teachers to have fun and do things they like.
We are spending 180 in school that's about half of the year sitting in a classroom, that's not even counting the hours (that add up to days) that we spend on homework outside of school. You go into the two day weekend thinking that you have plenty of time to do your work.
On Friday I don't do any work, instead I go to bed early because I know that I have two more full days to finish my homework. Saturday I typically spend with family and I think to myself I have all of Sunday to do my work. Then Sunday comes. I am stressing to finish all of my work. I am spending all of my day doing parts of assignments trying to also enjoy the last day of “relaxation”. Having one extra day off can really benefit a person and help them manage their time knowing that they have three days to finish homework. It will also help during the school week because you would be well rested and you just have to get through two days then you are halfway through the week until you get three days off.
@Ellen Phillips
I love your point about family time and the way that schools even include work into our "days off," while in other countries, they do not believe in giving homework because home is for family.
Yes, Mr. Hunnicutt’s statement does ring true for me because I work more for more money. In my future career yes I would rather have a job that pays a lot but requires more working hours. I would choose that because I would have enough to support all my needs and more and even help others. I think about it as the fewer hours you work the less you will earn. Go bigger or go home! I just like the money I would get out of this! If I get kids they won’t be ashamed or jealous because we dont have this, this, and this (NOT saying that people who make less should be ashamed). I know I’m not rich but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a good life(don’t get me wrong), yes being rich would be nice but I am satisfied with where I am now, but with more education, I get along the way I will prosper and be as rich. That's why I also think 5 days a week is a good amount of days in school, yes that's one day off will be enjoyable but in the long run, my education means more to me. Research has shown that a satisfied mind brings happiness!!!!
I believe the four day work and school week is an effective decision that would benefit individuals in society by proposing an improved work-life balance. The modern generations have a stronger desire for a shortened week in hopes of achieving better time-management, health, and happiness and the research proves this by displaying a 40% raise in productivity. The increase in leisure time gives working citizens a break to do things that motivate them like exercising, seeing family, going out with friends, and other activities. Realistically, individuals getting time to reevaluate and get a break will contribute to their attitude at work and school and their general well-being. However, not all individuals in society agree to this new system and they have a right to an opinion as well, but this percentage of citizens get beneficial rewards too. If one wishes to continue working on an off day, granted their company/employer allows it, they will only get overtime hours meaning more money for them. As for education on off days, students can study and learn on their own time rather than being surrounded by the pressures and unsanitary conditions of schools. Taking all of these ideas into account, I believe a four day work/school week could serve as an advantage to society especially during holiday seasons when people have an urge to spend time with family and friends, but can’t because of the constant burdens.
School weeks and work weeks should be changed to four days a week, as the extra free time has proved beneficial to the focus and productivity of people. Studies and examples have shown that having a four day week schedule actually boosted the productivity of workers. Microsoft Japan tested a four day week schedule and found that the productivity of their workers improved by 40%. This prompted them to permanently change their schedule to four days a week. For school, a four day week schedule would be less tiring on students physically and mentally. They have an extra day to do work and focus on doing things for themselves. This could greatly improve a student's focus at school.
A four day workweek would be the death sentence for modern workers. Already the United States is struggling to keep up academically and productively with vastly more efficient Asian countries. Compared to China, South Korea, and Japan, Americans are severely underworked. We need to quit whining about all the difficult things we have to do and just get the trenches and get them done. The japanese school system has 240 days of work, or 60 more than the US, on top of more rigorous courses and commonly attended after-school, cram school. It is more than likely that a shorter workweek would not spell success for the American worker, but rather demise, as we descend into further laziness that no other country tolerates while insisting that it is in the name of productivity.
The past few weeks of school we have had 3 day weekends and 4 day school weeks. I have loved it, the 3 day weekend gave me time to have fun and then I spent the extra day working on homework. And the 4 day school week made it a lot easier to get through the week.
They tested this 4 day work week in Japan and it increased productivity by 40%. An organizational psychologist said he believes it will be a long time before something like this happens in America. I think the reason why is because it would be a big change, personally I think it would be a great change and make people have better social lives and I think it would make work and school much more enjoyable.
How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? What else?
The change of school to be four days would affect my life dramatically. I've spent some nights doing my homework that my teacher assigned me the following day because my duty as a student. I know some students that do the same as well. They stay up past 12 am knowing they have to wake up very early for school. It's really stressful to those who have after-school activities to do. If school were to be four days a week, I would spend a day to myself to relax from all the stress school gives me. Procrastination may hit me but at least I know I have one more day to do my duty as a student. With that four school days situation, It would be a dream paradise of a stress free zone.
I think we should have shorter workweeks and school weeks because when people are well-rested and are not stressed they do better work. Finland is known to have one of the best education systems in the world and they have significantly shorter school days than in Americbut Finland has got this amazing system with the students being more ready to go to class and they would be less stressed which improves productivity a lot. I believe that a lot of learning is done out of school, many extracurricular activities can be added to a student’s schedule with fewer days in a school week which can train students to be more productive.
I think that the work/school week should be shortened to four days instead of five. Since the shortened workweek increased productivity by 40% in Microsoft Japan, I think it would have positive effects in the US too. Some pros of a shorter week are less stress among students and working adults. A three-day weekend would give people lots of opportunities to catch up on their work and it would be a great time for fun activities and family time. Some cons would be that teachers would have less time to cover material and extra days might be taken from summer vacation. Also, some people need to work five days a week to make ends meet. Those people would have to find other jobs or find something else to make money. All in all, I think that the pros outweigh the cons and the work/school week should be shortened to four days instead of five.
I agree that school and workweek should be four days instead of five. According to Microsoft Japan, the company's productivity improved by about 40% after testing a shortened week with 4 days instead of 5. Thus, I think that this could be possible for schools as well. By having only 4 days of work in a week, students would be able to have an extra day off to relax and spend more time with their family. In addition, it may also stop procrastination and significantly decrease the amount of stress within the students as they have extra time to work and study. As a high school student with many extra-curricular activities, it is sometimes difficult for me to balance the time between school and activities on a regular week. For instance, my school's dismissal time is in the afternoon and I have to attend club practices until later on. When I come home, I have to follow my house chores and then prepare for dinner. By the time I'm done, it is already evening, if not, then late to work on my school assignments that are due the next day. Hence, I would usually stay up until almost midnight on a regular week just to achieve the best quality of my school work. However, if school and workweek were to be only 4 days instead of 5, I may have the same exact schedule daily, but at least I have three days off to relax and spend more time with family bonding and enjoying hobbies. All things considered, students and employees would have much higher productivity and happiness with a 4-day week.
I think that the school and work week should be four days because it's less work for the students and the employees. My mom is always working to hard so if she had one less day of work she wouldn't be working as much. Some advantages is that you have less work to do during the week days and you might have time to do the things you like to do instead of homework. Some disadvantages is that you might get more homework on the weekends then normally would and your boss might make you work on the weekends, too. If the school week was four days instead of five, I would be waking up a 6:30 in the morning on what ever day is turned to the weekend. I would spend more time doing things that I enjoy (not homework). I would rather have a job that offers more time off the a job that offers more money because family is more important than money to me so I can spend time with my family.
From a schools perspective I don't think the schedule would really change because of the amount we need to learn in that school year. It would be weird. But lets say that adding that extra weekday acted like a normal weekend. Then its a different story. It would be much better for everybody, as it states the productivity being 40% more. So yes I feel adding an extra day would be beneficial for workers. I think this might help a lot of people out in school and workers if they added an extra day to the weekend. The ability to not worry about work for a bigger percentage of the week would be better for everybody's well being.
@Joaquin I do agree with your point that it would be better for school students to have a three day weekend as a way to get more sleep and help with homework. However, if you put that extra day of work into a modern American job, it would be a nightmare for most families. With some struggling just to pay their bills earning minimum wage, that extra day may be what lets them pay rent or not. I think that the extra day could be beneficial, but no too all workers.
While acknowledging the many benefits that come with a five day week, I personally believe that the week should span four days due to many reasons that relate to the hours outside of the work schedule that are necessary for a business and individual to be productive. Although one has less time to work in four days rather than five, being in a rush to complete a task can give one more motivation to complete it and ultimately result in more productivity. Following completion of a short compact week, a long weekend would be greater than ideal to relax and have time to breathe before another harsh week of either school or work. In the area of school, an added day on the weekend would provide students with more time to complete assignments. To slow down the fast pace of today's society, this extra day would take the stress off of some students' lives and increase their overall happiness, also benefiting the teachers in the same way. Japan's recent study over the situation reinforces this concept by proving that “workers increase productivity by 40%”. When applied to the classroom and countless of other practices, a four day week would greatly improve almost every aspect of citizens lives.
Members of the workforce and students in American public schools have been pushing for a four-day work week for years, but the idea has yet to come to fruition. A four-day week would allow students and workers to have an extra day of rest a week, but there would be complications when it came to hours of work and instruction. The majority of states require that a school year be around 180 days, meaning students attend class for around thirty-six weeks out of the year. If educational time remained the same amount of hours every day, but happened one less day a week, public school would have to be in session for forty-five weeks, leaving only seven weeks of the year for vacation. The lack of vacation time for students may cause an increase in stress, which could lower overall productivity. The average work-week for adults is forty hours, which averages to eight hours each day for five days a week. To continue to earn the same salary as a five-day week, most members of the workforce would have to work ten hours a day. The effects of the longer days would be the same as the effects of a four-day school week: workers would most likely be more physically and mentally drained, causing a decline in efficiency in workplaces. A four-day week would give workers and students an extra day of rest each week, but it has the potential to be detrimental to the American economy and education system.
Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?
Based on Microsoft's research and on empirical evidence, the workweek should be shortened to four days. We can do simple math on the Microsoft's research to comprehend wherther if it is more effective. For instance, people had a producitivity of 1 when working in the five-day schedule; the coefficient of the total work done is 1 multiplied by 5 days which is 5. However, when working in four-day schedule, people have a producitivity of 1.4, so the total work is 4 times 1.4 which is 5.6, which is 0.6 more work done than the 5-day schedule. For another instance, our school had 3 weeks in a month with 4 days of school due to natural disasters and holidays. It can be observed and felt that students are working with higher efficiency. In addition to that, a 3-day weekend gives enough time for students to relax while allowing them to complete all the homework assignments, improving their health and educational quality. With all these benefits, why wouldn't we make our workweek shorter?
Some advantages of a shortened week are that you could have more free time and/or have more time to do your assignments without having to worry that it is due the next day. We have more time to relax and do what we could not do during school/work days. Some disadvantages are that since you have a 3-day weekend, you could slack off and your education may lack due to the fact that the weeks are shortened.
I think the pros do outweigh the cons because people could have things planned on the weekend already that takes up their time, so having another day off could give them more opportunities to do things they do not have the time to do. Some people take language school on the weekends, and that could take up your free time depending on how long it is.
I agree with the author in regard to changing the work week from five days to four day. It will increase productivity by workers knowing that they need to get their work done in an efficient time and within the new four day work week. Also if the employee on the job has a large project to get done at a current date, it will cause the employee to be efficient and more accurate when working on this complex project for the company. This will cause the employee to work 10 hours per day or more during the new four day work week. Therefore, with the shorter work week, it will make employees work faster and more accurate when they know that it is a smaller amount of days. If the work week becomes shorter, it causes the employees to become more motivated and mentally positive to come to work knowing that by Thursday, it is the end of the work week and now the weekend. That is why I think by having a shorter work week, it becomes beneficial for employees and companies to make the work week change.
I think that school and workweeks should be for four days. An extra day off is helpful for many people and students. With the extra day off, there would be more time to relax and do other activities, such as laundry of studying. I know that many students don’t like to do their work after school and also might not have time to do it because of after school activities. If students have Friday off, it may motivate and give students something to look towards. People may say that with the extra day off, they tend to procrastinate more. Although I agree with this, it really depends on how you spend your time. I believe it is more important to be able to relax because if you constantly have stress in your mind, it will become unhealthy and will also affect how you work. Students will have a better result from their work if they are less stressed. As studies show, the productivity in a 4 day work week increased by 40%.
@Margareth Tanusaputra I totally agree with your idea that with an extra day off, students would feel less stressed. Being a student myself, I realize that we become so exhausted by the end of the week that those two days pass by in a second! Although we are talking about students in specific here, I think the Article talks about this epidemic for all people in general. It is true that everyone would like a day off- parents spending time with their children, being able to do chores, and taking out some time for self care- however this might increase the level of laziness in us. Do you think people would start to show less efficiency in their work because of the lazy mindset this change would create?
I believe that school and work should follow a four day a week schedule. Whether it’s a student or an employee, 5 days in a row of work and school gets tiring and you start to lose focus.
Having only two days off on the weekend just isn’t enough. One day you spend trying to get caught up from the previous week, and the other day you spend preparing for the week to come. Mr. Barnes said, ‘Well, actually, I’m not just doing this because it is a good thing for my employees, I can also do this because it is good for business.” Mr. Barnes realizes that not only do the employees benefit, but the business benefits too with increased productivity.
When students and employees are rested and refreshed, they have a much higher productivity and are just much happier in general. The school year could become much longer though, having to incorporate all the required school days if shortening the week. This theory of a four day week has been discussed for years, maybe it’s time to actually put it in place.
@Hogan Meiser Your comment was very insightful. I definitely feel like I spend more of the weekend just getting prepared for the week ahead than actually relaxing. Great work.
I think my life would change for the better if I went to school four instead of five days a week. Often on the weekend, my family goes out to a park or something, but we can't stay out for very long because of homework that is due on Monday. I think an extra day off from school would be good because it would allow me to spend time with my family, have time to do my homework, and do the things that I enjoy doing. I think that at school I would be able to focus more on my work because I'm not just thinking about the rest of the week. I think I would waste more time outside of school, but only when I was not doing anything and neither was the rest of my family. My family recently got a new puppy, so it would be ideal to be able to stay home an extra day, just to spend some more time with him. I think that a four day work week would be great for both workers and students.
@Miles Ottinger I would also see a huge improvement in my life if the school week was changed to just four days because sometimes I can get very stressed with the work.
I think that my life would be a lot less stressful. It doesn’t sound right since I would have to work a lot harder in school, but I think it would be. First off, we aren’t always productive in school with our five days anyway. However, I think the 4 days would make me feel like I have a smaller time limit, so I have to work harder. For example, Microsoft Japan said that the workers were 40% more productive with 4 days instead of 5. They had less time and did more work. I think that could happen in school as well. Normally, homework is overwhelming and I have to finish it on weekends and miss out on time with my parents. However, if we are able to finish our classwork in the 4 day period and get the same amount of homework, I would feel a lot less stressed because I have that extra day to do my homework. Of course, this would mean we’d have to work a lot harder in class, but it is definitely doable. I feel like that extra free time we would have leftover would help me a lot more. That little time to talk to friends or just relax by myself would make me a lot more productive because I think that since I’ve gotten my free time to mess around, I should go and do some work.
In my future career, I would choose more time and less pay. One of my classmates said that they’d rather have more pay but less time. The reason they said it, I guess, is because with more pay you can have more luxurious things. As much as I’d love to have nicer stuff, what’s the point of it if I’m just going to be spending most of my time working? My teacher also brought up a good point, which was that if you have kids, then you wouldn’t have the time to have fun with them. They also said that kids grow up and sooner or later, they leave you. I don’t know about anyone else but if I had kids, I’d want them to remember me.
I do think that the school and workweek should be 4 days, like most other people in my class. I believe that humans overwork themselves and the extra productivity is an added bonus to people getting a break. 5/7 of a week is a large amount, about 260 days in a year we would be working. Humans like everything else needs breaks to function at their best capability. After a long weekend, we feel refreshed and ready to work harder. I would not recommend only 3 days of work though as that is too little to get much done (especially when learning in a school). Four days is the perfect amount, not too much not too little.
I personally believe that America should implement 4-day weeks rather than the regular 5 day weeks. I think that 4-day weeks will improve the performance of many students and employees. As proven by Japan after experimenting with shortened weeks, 40% of people were more productive when their week was shortened. When the week becomes shorter, people have less time to procrastinate. There are many advantages to shortening the week, such as, allowing people more time to relax with a three-day weekend, people can spend more time with friends and family, a shorter week will help people mentally by having an extra day to destress and not have to worry about all of the stressful things in life, and lastly it will increases the productivity of the work done during the week. While there are many advantages, there are some disadvantages. One is having a shorter amount of time to get things done. Things will be a little more rushed due to losing a day of work or school. Another disadvantage is the possibility of having longer work and schools days to make up for the lost day or possibly a shorter summer break for schools. I do not think America will be implementing the 4-day week anytime soon, but I think that it should be considered in the future because of all the positive affects this will have on students and those in the workforce.
In my future career I would prefer to have a job with a large pay but requires more work hours. I believe hard work equals large rewards. I like to break down this decision into simpler terms. Money is a trade item - the more you have the more luxury you can trade for aside from your needs. The more hours and hard work you put into your job, the more money you can make, which equals more trade. The less hours you work the less money you can make and the less trade you can do. You can interpret this however you want, but I like to think of it as a decision between 10 minutes of royalty or 30 minutes of common life. From here I take the pick of royalty because you never know what may happen to you in the future. You may die at any moment, and I would like to live a luxury of large trades that I rightfully earned than a normal life in terms of money.
I believe that we should have a shorter work week, because as shown in Japan, when workers were given an extra day off, productivity increased by 40%. People would have more time to pursue passions and relax, possibly helping with stress. With an extra day off, people could also have enough time to catch up on studies, or do homework. Some advantages would be more time to relax and, and when you go back to work or school, you’ll be more productive. Some disadvantages might be unable to get a lot of work done, and once three day weekends are normal, people wouldn’t like it that much anymore.
@Cindy Wang While I agree with most of your points, there are some things I do not agree with. For one thing, as the article stated, the four day week raised productivity. They were able to get more work done within the four day week than they did in the five day week. Your points about an extra day off make sense though, as sometimes I myself feel like my brain and my body as a whole could benefit greatly from another day of rest. I personally wouldn't mind having a three day weekend, but as you said, some people might get sick of it, but there are also others who would look forward to another day of rest. Rest would also help enhance our productivity, as more rest would lead to more energy in the workplace, school, field, etc.
I think that a four day work week would be a better fit for people. I believe this because if you have an extra day off you could spend it doing something that makes you happy, ie, spending time with your family. If the statistics show that in a four day work week people are more productive than their usual five day work week that means companies would be able to do more while giving their workers more freedom and satisfaction. With the data this scenario could also be applied to education. If students accomplish more work than usual that would benefit what they learn and it would also benefit the school’s curriculum. Not only would students learn more, to their advantage they would have another day which would lower stress and create a better environment for their brains to rest and comprehend the information being presented at school.
Quantity or quality of time? This is the question that schools and businesses have been asking themselves for the past fifty years. Would the four day work week impact the amount of work and learning people get done in a positive or negative way? I think it would be beneficial to both the company and the worker. The company has an increase in productivity, as was proved in the Microsoft Japan study, and the worker has more time to pursue hobbies, spend time with friends and family, and relax. If a company overworks an employee, or a teacher overworks their students, then that worker of student will be fatigued the next day, and their quality of work will drop, along with their quality of life. If you have no time for anything but your job or your school, your mental health starts to crumble, and the extra day would help with that.
I think that the school and workweek should be four days because people find that four days aren’t so bad and they will keep pushing their productivity until the end of the week. Five days just sometimes feels like it’s forever and when the weekend comes it’s just a quick two days. Something good about a shortened school and workweek would be, I think, more productivity and having a longer weekend to rest your body and mind. This could also not be good for some people because they may want those extra hours for learning or for being payed. Overall though, in my opinion the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I do however believe Americans value work as an end itself and they work in order to make good grades, proceed to college, and end up in a good career path in order to become wealthy. The thing here is people, more-so Americans, value money. The world revolves around money and without it “you have nothing”. For myself I would rather have a job in the future that pays me less and offers me more time off. I am a social butterfly, so I love spending time out and making sure my health, mental and physical, is good. I can get a job that has pay that’s best fitting for me, but also allows me to have some off days to take care of myself every once in a while, and this doesn’t mean I would always have to go out somewhere to do that.
I think that a four day work week would be a good thing. If companies get a 40% productivity increase they will make more money, parents will be able to spend more time with their kids, and everyone will be happy. I don't see this happening soon because most boomer don't like change but Millennials and Gen Z would be for incline for change especially if it a win win situation for everyone.
I believe that the school-week should be 4 days instead of 5 because it gives us more time in catching up on our work and free time to work on extracurricular projects. Even though it might mean longer workdays, more short-term work, and less bedtime, the “weekend” would be longer, with that we could be less stressed, and we could spend more time with our family and sincere confidants. The benefits push back the drawbacks by far. I see working a means to reach an ending, and not as a finale itself. If work is what some people see as a conclusion, so be it, but I see many opportunities beyond the work itself, for example, my dream car, or a happy family. I, like many of my intimate companions, value a work-life balance over high pay, provided the circumstance that I’m not as poor as the poverty line. I prefer a job in the middle because I won’t be just slacking off or stressing myself to the extent I barely socialize with family.
The school/workweek should be four days. You may think that it may be possible for people with jobs, but how could you do it for school. Well, in the first place it would relieve stress for school children. They would have more time to do homework and play. The four-day week would go by faster and students wouldn’t be as tired on the last day of school for the week. This would cause more productivity. But this would have to lead to some changes in the school calendar. Let's say school starts at 8:30 am and ends at 3:00 pm. Well, then school might have to end at 4:00 pm. Also, instead of having subjects such as PE, art, and music twice a week we would have it once or even every other week to let more time for math, social studies, science, and English, which are more useful subjects. School would have to be year-round, starting in January and ending in December. There would still be spring, summer, and winter breaks, but summer break would be shorter, and spring and winter break would be longer. Even though things would have to be changed, the school/workweek should be 4 days.
I think that there should be 4 days if school. I think just think that would be great because is students would have 3 days off instead 2 days off of school, so in that case we would at least get a half a week of from school. It would be efficient because we would have 4 days of school
Quantity or quality of time? This is the question that schools and businesses have been askinf themselves for the past fifty years. Would the four day worl week impact the amount of work and learninf people get done in a positive or negative way? I think it would be beneficial to both the company and the worker. The company has an increase in productivity, as was prvoed in the Microsoft Jpan study, and the worker has more time to pursue hobbies, spend time with friends and family, and relax. If a company overworks an employee, or a teacher overworks their wtudents, then that worker of student will be fatigued the next day, and thier quality of work will drop, along with their quality of life. If you have no time for anyhting but your job or your school, your mental health starts to crumble, and the extra day would help with that.
In my opinion I would love a shortened week, especially if it would mean more productivity. At my school, they give a lot of work and having just one day at home to relax and have a day to catch up on some work would mean a lot. I put a great deal of pressure on myself to do good at school so even when it’s a weekend, it’s a weekend of doing work. Friday off could mean that Sunday could really be a day of rest. In the article it states that production goes up 40 percent in a four day week. However, there are cons to this adjustment, if you’re at work you might get less pay and for school children you might not have enough time to learn everything you need to know for the year ahead.
I do think the workweek should be shortened to four days instead of five because it gives us more free time to be doing something that we love. It will be better mentally for me since I do sports, I need to rest physically and mentally. But if I go to school, I would already be exhausted by the third or fourth day. Having that one extra day off I can get chores done easily and still have time to spend with family. Some advantages are that you can be more mentally stable and you will be more focused on learning or doing your work. It will be better overall for your health and you will have more free time to spend with friends, family, or hobbies. Some disadvantages that people are saying are that you can't make up your work. In my future career, I would want to work for fewer hours and have less pay than working more hours and have more pay. This is because I want to have more free time to do the things I love. Also, if I were to have kids, I would want to see them grow up.
@Mary Nguyen I agree with you. There are many benefits to having a four day week rather than a five day week. I think these pros outweigh the cons. Times spent with loved ones are the most valuable times in our lives. Taking a break for ourselves to decompress is important as well. When we are healthy and well rested we are much more productive. This increase in productivity will earn back the work from the lost day. While we wouldn’t be getting paid, I think most people would agree that it is worth it.
When I start to work just out of college, I would rather make more money than work fewer hours. I would want this because I will need money to pay for rent, any college things I need to pay back for, food, and other needs. I will start with a higher paying job because I want to get my life going and start to live comfortably without having to worry about not having enough money and too much time to spend the money. Once I have saved a good amount and have gotten to a point where I wish to have more free time, I can transition to a job that may pay a little less but gives me more free time.
I would rather there not be four day working weeks. I feel this would not positively benefit people and companies in America. My parents both have full time jobs and are very fortunate. My father works as a professor at the Pennsylvania Wharton School of Finance and my mother works as an underwriter at a bank in Philadelphia. My parents, especially my dad, do work a lot but they do a great time at balancing work life with home life. The other day I was scrolling through my families camera role of the past seven years, and I realized how many great experiences my family and I have had together. I saw countless pictures from hiking on mountains with my family and cousins to fun vacations, visiting relatives in Iowa, Switzerland, and Colorado. Looking back at these memories made me so grateful for my family and our success as many people don’t have this. Daily, I spend time with my mother, father, and brother doing memorable things together. I think this balance of work and other experiences is perfect for me and my family. Maybe it would be fun to try out but for now, I am very happy with my weekly schedule.
I think that our school week should be shortened to 4 days. Some reasons why are as followed. It gives us more time to spend with our families and relatives who we might not get to see all the time. It also allows us to have more time for ourselves because we can get a lot of stuff done on Friday and then have the weekend all to ourselves. My last reason for the shortening of school days is because of the study that was conducted on Microsoft. It says that the company was more productive so maybe we might be a lot more productive at school.
The advantages of having a four day work/school week compared to a five day week, although seemingly little, have been proven to be much greater than expected. Not only does the employee have to work less, but as proven in Japan, they work harder in those 4 days than they would over the span of 5 days; 40% more to be specific. If the productivity increase isn’t enticing enough for the employer, they should also consider the increase of overall happiness of the employee. The increase in happiness won’t only be a temporary change but it will also increase the productivity long-term. It’s similar to the phrase “A happy wife, a happy life”. The happier the employee, the better they will do in the workplace. Then the obvious, the happier the employee, the easier the job will be for the employer. It’s easier to work with people who are content with what they are doing, so why pass up that opportunity? Whether in the workplace or at school, the week should be shortened. If higher productivity and an increase in happiness in proven, what could possibly be a good enough reason to argue against it? It would benefit the majority to condense the week so that should be done.
@Erin Key While I do acknowledge the fact that reducing the length of the work week from five days to four may appear to have no negative effects on the business, there are some very compelling reasons why many businesses today have not implemented this practice. One such reason is that when an employer reduces the number of hours their employees work for, they take a very costly risk that their employees may not fulfill their work requirements despite them having higher job satisfaction. This exact risk is clearly illustrated in a test conducted by Sweden in which they reduced the work week from forty to thirty hours. Even though workers reported a higher job satisfaction, the business eventually put a stop to the idea because it was too costly for them to continue. This is just one of several different reasons why businesses do not implement the four-day work week. Many more reasons can be found with just a little bit of googling. Overall, there are quite a few negative effects--particularly on businesses--of using a shorter work week.
@Niklas Anderson, I think I good compromise between 4 day work weeks vs. 5 day work weeks would be to just shorten the length of a workday by an hour or two this would give workers more time to relax and get rest making them more productive but also not shortening their hours long enough for them to still meet their work requirements. This would give employees a higher job satisfaction as well as people getting their work done. As I see it this is a win-win situation workers are happy and more productive and they can still meet requirements fo their work. Also as Erin said relating to "happy wife, happy life." If your workers are happy with the job more people will want to work for you. Also, people are more likely to take less money for the job because they know they will enjoy their job more.
In my opinion I do think that the week should be four days instead of 5. It would give people an extra day to rest. It would also give people more time to complete things because they would have time to work on it when they would normally be using that time at work or school. Having more time to work on things could reduce anxiety. I don’t think people would need as many mental health days if the work week was shortened. I know I wouldn’t have to rush to finish my assignments as much as I do now.
@Brianna K. Yes. I agree with you. I think that since I have to rush to get everything done on time, some assignments may be half as good as they could be if I would have had say an extra day. In the article, Microsoft Japan did a trial of a shorter work week. Instead of five days there were four. The productivity level heightened. Go figure.
I agree with you in you saying more time to work lessens anxiety. I have so much anxiety to finish things on time. This results in me crashing eventually from my mind working so hard for days on end. I definitely think a shorter work week would benefit everybody. People would have the opportunity to get more sleep thus resulting in an increase in productivity. Work smarter not harder.
I do think the school and workweek should be four days instead of because it gives children and adults a 3 day weekend to relax and finish any work they didn’t get time to finish at school/work. Kids and adults can spend more time with their loved ones at home as well and do something fun over the weekend. For students, they get extra time to study for a test or finish a project they have yet to complete. For adults, they can also study for a job test or do any work they forget to do. The advantages of a shortened weekend are you can get more study time, get more project time, and get relaxation time. The disadvantages of a shortened weekend are you can miss a day of work and you will probably get homework because of your missing work. In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons because you get extra time to catch up and relax. My life would change if I went to school for only 4 days because I could get more time to catch up on work for good grades and I get to spend more time with my family. I’d way more productive at school because extra time allows me to get extra work done. I’d do schoolwork and for fun stuff, if my school was four days a week. I see work as a means to an end because when you do work, you get a grade and good grades promote a good college and a good college promotes a good-paying job. I'd have a job that pays a lot but requires long hours because the more money you have, the less you'll struggle. Also when I retire, I'll still have a lot of money.
I think that the school and work week should be shortened to 4 days every other week. That way, students don’t miss out on too much learning but still look forward to the three-day weekend. Here are some pros and cons of the four-day week.
PROS:
The productivity rate increases
Students and employees won’t miss as much school/work if they go on longer vacations
Students/teachers/employees will be more excited to return to school/jobs
CONS:
You might suffer from a relapse in your knowledge/ miss something important at work.
You might have to retire later than you originally planned
You get less pay
I think that the week shouldn’t be reduced to 4 days. Even though it could be great for people, you also have to understand that in America, so many people procrastinate, and by making the weekend longer, people are more likely to procrastinate and fall into a pattern of that until no one does anything anymore. While having a longer weekend would be nice, in school, it means that the year is longer and we have less break time, which I personally wouldn’t want. For work however, it could work out because you work for around 40-50 years of your life, if people got some of that time off it would probable make America a happier place.
@Allie
While I do somewhat agree with your assertion that a longer weekend could result in more procrastination, I also think that it can cause people—especially students—to be more productive. A longer weekend would mean more time to do things. Students would more likely be able to fit in homework time, as well as time for sports and hanging out with friends. Students would not have to pick what they value more, as they could potentially have time for all the things they want to do. Having an extra day can also mean more time for students to study for upcoming tests or to catch up on work, which can lead to better grades.
I believe Japan has many attributes that should be adapted by western culture but aren't, such as having students clean than janitors and four day weeks instead of five. Japan is far more innovative that most western countries and have much developed technonlog to take them in advancments along with benefitting their envionment. The idea of shortening their weeks and finding better results, doesn't surprise me that much. As working 5 days a week with only 2 days a break seems restless. As we seen that studies prove 40% of productivety, I don't see any problem with not changing our weekly schedule. The effect is rather positive than negative.
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America today is filled with numerous ideas to change the work and school environment such as year-round school, lengthening or shortening the work day, and the current topic: shortening the business week altogether. There is no doubt that a four-day work week would have a tremendous impact on workers. However, when recognizing this impact as advantageous or detrimental to schools and the workforce, the beneficial consequences outweigh what is thought negatively of the decision.
Mental health days have been an increasingly popular topic of discussion in regards to work and education. As studies in mental health and illness have developed over many years, it has been revealed that days for taking care of oneself mentally are becoming a more necessary part of working environments. With a shortened work week, mental health days would become more accessible to workers who need them. Freeing a day of the week could also benefit those who travel, whether it be for a family vacation, school competition, or community service project. Workers can better experience life outside of their work environments while maintaining a healthy balance between what is inside and outside of work.
While some who oppose a four-day work week may claim that the decision will harm focus and a worker's output, the opposite may be true. Because a shortened work week would make workers' lives more enjoyable, their contentment would actually appear in increased productivity at the workplace.
@Jae Thomas I completely agree. Current research shows that the benefits DO outweigh the drawbacks, as stated in the article. Increased happiness and overall well-being only lead to increased worker productivity, which is a HUGE plus for business executives. I believe that a four-day week is an excellent idea which can only lead to good things, and Mr. Barnes agrees with me.
I don’t know. Maybe a four-day workweek would be better, but that’s about the same as starting school later. People will take advantage of it and procrastinate more. However, others will likely take the shortened work week and focus on work more. So it’s a double-edged sword. I’m definitely part of the people, who will do the same amount of work as normal. Just so I could relax more and produce everything in a rushed quality. As for if I see work as an end, I don’t. There’s no way life ends, working until you die. In the future, I have no idea which type of job I want. I guess more work for high pay since I will likely have no reason to be home.
i personally think that they should keep the school week as it is with it being 5 days. as nice as it would be to have longer weekends it would just mean more work in those 4 days
I believe that the week should be four days, not just reducing 40-hour work weeks to four days, but cutting off a day entirely. Studies have proven that students work better with a 4-day week instead of five. I know that personally, I find that going to school five days in a row gets boring and annoying. But as much as I wish we had a 4-day weekend, I doubt we will get one anytime soon. I personally prioritize leisure time over pay. I value time to think and relax more than I do getting paid a lot of money. I don’t think I could work that much time just to get more money.
I believe that a 4 day work week would improve the quality of life for most people but I also think a pay increase might be necessary but also justified because japan showed a 40% increase in productivity. The people would be working less hours. Nobody wants to spend there whole life working but work is apart of life but if work wasn't such a big deal and such a time consuming thing people would have time to enjoy the better things in life.
I think having a shorter work/school week would be beneficial to many students, especially for students who have extra curricular activities. For me the biggest issue with school is how inactive we are. We sit down for sometimes 6 hours a day, and the only physical activity we do is walking in between classes and gym. Our posture is also terrible, because we are either bending over a computer, a worksheet, or slumping in our chairs because we’re tired. Having one less day of school would be great for me, personally, because I am an active person, and would like to spend more time being outside and moving. There are little alternatives for keeping kids moving in class, and most schools don’t implement them anyway, so having an entire day to de-stress and do what I love would be great for me and many other students.
Everyone would like an extra day off, but it might not be worth it. If you eliminate one day from the week, the lost time has to go somewhere. One solution is working longer hours during those four days, but that would lower the appeal for a shorter week. For kids, school recesses could be shortened. Summer break is exceptionally long and has some unfavorable effects, such as loneliness and forgetting what you’ve learned in school. I would definitely give up some of my summer break for reduced week length. Four-day weeks could work for kids, but what about adults? Most adults already work during the summer, so what would be reduced would be salary. This may drive many people away from the idea, but younger adults are starting to favor work-life balance over pay. Change is hard, especially on a massive scale like this. However, it is possible and comes with many potential benefits.
A four day workweek sounds like paradise to everyone. Individuals are constantly busy and often cry “I need a weekend from my weekend”. The addition of another day to one’s downtime could add plenty of opportunities to do more than sit slumped behind a computer.Productivity would skyrocket. Sports practices could end later, giving students more time to master their skills. There would also be an extra day to complete homework assignments, so students wouldn’t be behind. There’s opportunity for a plethora of great ideas. Parents would have more time to spend with their children, causing families to be close-knit. This -of course- exists in a perfect world, but if there were one more gap day between work and play, would individuals stop being busy? Would they stop their dash to get it all done in a dissipating window of time? In reality, the vicious cycle would continue. Individuals would still overbook their schedules, and companies would stay open longer to compensate for lost working hours. An extra day off sounds perfect, but would it really be worth it?
@Lexia L. You are completely correct, people would use their day off to do even more work. While people are saying it's the perfect day to spend time with loved ones or do outside activities, in reality you really would spend your day doing work that you would normally do on Fridays, as teachers will probably assign more work because it would be a shortened week.
I believe that making the week a day shorter it would have lots of benefits on today's society. By cutting the work week to 4 days instead of having it at 5 days, it would relieve a lot of people of stress. This would let people be able to rest, and spend time with family. The weekend makes many people happy and allows stress to be gone because you are able to rest. With the extra day added, you could add to your productive to your work schedule and down time with your family. This would be a huge benefit to the world, because it would make people a lot more happier than being stressed all the time. So much homework is given throughout the week and by giving the extra day it would allow for people to take the time to truly finish their homework and to get caught up with their classes.
Having a four work and school week would mean more off time and more productivity. In my opinion, I think that a four day school week would work indefinitely for our school schedule. More free time would signify more time for friends and family. More time for friends and family allows me to relax and let out all of my stress to get ready for the weekdays. During those weekdays, more productivity may be completed which allows students to get ready for exams and standardized tests. Currently, there are only two weekend days. Those two weekend days are not long enough for relaxing and hanging out with friends, all to fit in with a whole lot of homework.
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I think a shorter workweek would benefit all workers and students. Studies have shown that more free time and vacation have lowered depression moodlets in people (especially teens) which, in turn, highers work performance. Shorter workweeks mean more time for sleep, which also benefits people, and makes people much more happy, friendly, and productive when they do have work. Advantages of a 4-day workweek include more productivity (as stated in the article), a better work atmosphere, more focus, more compliance, friendliness, and a chance for more creative thoughts and ideas which could greatly benefit the work being done. Disadvantages may include not enough time to finish work, but I believe the productivity would make up for that. In my future career, I would get less money but more free time. I value my well being over my money, and want to be well rested and happy when I go to work.
Shortening the classic five day week down to four days is something a majority of kids will stand behind, including myself. I believe there are many positive aspects to this change, and it is overall better for the mental health of students. We’d have more time to do extracurricular activities, spend time with family and friends, study, and most importantly, relax. After entering highschool, I’ve noticed that my mental and physical state have greatly changed compared to middle school. I’m a lot more stressed because of the heavy workload, and honestly it does get very overwhelming, considering we’re supposed to get good grades, have a social life, and take care of ourselves all while attending school 5 days a week for 7-8 hours. Students would be more productive and motivated to do their work, and have more time to study—which would ultimately result in an improvement of grades and more success.
@Klaudia Czepiel
You present a compelling argument as to why the school week should be shortened to four days: to improve the mental health of students. While I agree with the fact that a shortened school week would result in students being more relaxed and participating in more extracurricular activities, I would argue that many students need a five-day week in order to maintain productivity. In my own experience, longer weekends do not directly correlate with a greater amount of work accomplished. If an extra day were to be added to every weekend, I would most likely become lazier in terms of completing academic work. In addition, I believe that the amount of effort spent on school work is proportional to the depth of learning. Therefore, in order to maximize our understanding of the content of our classes, it is necessary to attend school five days a week to maintain what Niraj Chokshi calls our “inertia”.
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I think that the original five-day school week should be changed to four days. So many students face mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, which is caused by too much homework, too little sleep, and other school-related problems. If the school week was only four days long, it would give students time to breathe a little. They could unwind and have more time to focus on homework. Sure, the students wouldn’t be in school for as long, therefore they wouldn’t be under the direct instruction of a teacher, but the students will be well-rested, happy, and healthy. When students are living like this, they will be able to focus more easily, and for longer periods of time, making up for the time lost in one day.
I'm not gonna lie the only reason I think we should have a four day school week is that I want a day off school. I don't really know how a four day week would help us work better but If somebody wants to give me an extra weekend, go for it.I'm not gonna lie the only reason I think we should have a four day school week is that I want a day off school. I don't know how a four day week would help us work better but If somebody wants to give me an extra weekend, go for it. I will take all the extra weekend days I can get. The four day week will help me relax a lot better that's for sure but I don't think It will help me learn better. Although an extra off day could be good for students to absorb the information they learned in school I think we would be less productive.
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I think having a four day week is a good idea because I get a lot of homework and I have a lot of other extracurricular activities and chores and I have almost no free time. We had a three-day weekend last week, and I felt so much better on Tuesday because I had that extra day to do whatever I wanted. If we had three-day weekends every week, I would be a lot more productive because I would be less tired and happier. Outside of school, I could play video games and do my other hobbies like coding. This is why I want a four day week.
In my opinion the week should be four days. The experiment on the company showed that the people in the company worked 40% more efficiently. This means teachers could teach more in one day and kids would have more time to relax and reset our minds. The problem with the current school week is that there is barely any breathing space. The only time I can think of is Saturday. Saturday is a resting point because you don’t have school tomorrow and can rest and relax, while on Sunday you do your homework. The resting point should be on Wednesday since its time to refresh our brains after getting bored of school after two day we can come back with an open mind. The other option is longer weekend which means we suffer for a less amount of time
If the 40% increase in productivity that Microsoft Japan is true, then cutting down on the work week might actually be beneficial for the workplace environment. Spending a little more time at home to be with family and friends will help the workers mentally, and get them more ready for the following week of work. Also considering that most jobs go all year round with the except of certain holidays, taking one day off of work would not extend their work hours in anyway. School on the other hand is different. We students hate our five day long week, but we know that if we reduce the number of days we are in school, we’d be in school for longer. It would push our summer to be shorter and we value that time off greatly. As students we’d take the lesser evil of a longer school week so we could keep our three month time off, than decrease the number of days, and make our summer shorter.
If we had a shortened work week, it would be a lot more topics thrust on students, as they wouldn’t have a ton of time in class to learn about it. However, us students most likely would be able to learn better, as we have more time to rest. However, we would have a lot more homework, and for the people with early bedtimes (like me), it would make us very sleepy. In my opinion, I don’t think that the work week should be shortened, as a lot of us have after school activities, and if we had a shortened work week, we would have to stay longer at school. If we had four days of school, I would probably be more productive at school, but waste more time at home, as we would think that there would be so much more time to relax. Overall, a four day work week sounds good, but isn’t very realistic for my lifestyle.
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@Daniella Liang I agree but even if we as students waste more time at home and dont have that extra day to work that extra day gives motivation to do more when your supposed to be working so I believe that although during that day we would lose a lot of productivity during the days we are supposed to be doing work people will be more motivated to just do there work and not procrastinate or waste time during the work week because of the extra free time.
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@caleb I see where you're going with this and I disagree. Students like to take advantage of the time we have to relax. Many students procrastinate more over the weekend than on a normal school day. Personally why I think the productivity increased is because people had an extra day off and didn't feel overwhelmed with work or feel the need to do work at all.
I think that the work week should be four days for a couple important reasons. First of all, kids are so overloaded with homework on a daily basis they need a break. Teachers always say “make sure to get enough sleep” and “outside activities are good for you”. Both of those things are true but then they give hours of homework. In one night I have lacrosse, social studies, literacy and math homework, how do you expect me to have free time and go to bed on time to get a healthy amount of sleep. Having one day off would allow for better time management to do homework which leads to more freedom. On a regular weekend it almost feels as though I only have one free day because I have Saturday but on Sunday I am loaded with homework. If I had one day off, I could spread the workload throughout the three days and still have enough free time and sleep to be healthy. There is the controversy of not having enough schooltime but with the amount of homework teachers give, it makes up for some of the loss.
A four day week of school instead of a five day week sounds much more appealing to me because I am the type of person who works better and much more efficiently when I am well rested and energized. Often times it feels as though two days off is not nearly enough time to relax, do the things I want to do, and get all my weekend homework done so that I can get some good sleep. I think that nowadays especially, society has lost focus on the fact that we're all human, and we all need some time for ourselves. Without this much needed resting and rejuvenating time, we simply won't perform as well.
I would much rather have one less day a week at school, and I think that if I did, I would be able to study more, get more homework and assignments done, and still feel mentally and physically healthy and not utterly drained all around. "Just last week, Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent." This statement proves that, when people are allowed to take another day of the week off, they come back the following week more productive and ready to work better.
I think that a shortened week would work better. As someone with a busy family life, friend life, school life, and work life? I believe that an extra day where I can get everything done without the pressure of having school that day would greatly benefit me. Not all students have this schedule, but almost all having heavy workloads from classes even over night. A four day week allows an extra day for rest, family, studying, and friends as well. However, this would affect the teaching schedules. I think that classes would have to become quicker paced to make up for the missing day, but it would even out with less busy work and more comprehension work.
@Lyss Resendiz
I agree with a lot of the ideas that you wrote about. In addition to your ideas, I would like to consider mental health. Nowadays, mental health issues are very prominent in Generation Z. Depression and anxiety have become very common in younger students, and only having 2 days maximum of relaxing time is not sufficient. With a three day weekend, we would have more time to recharge and do activities that we are passionate about.
For me, I think that weeks should definitely be shortened to at least four days. I feel like a lot of people have a lot of stress and anxiety from working and going to school. I also feel that 2 days isn’t enough time for a break off from work and school. I think that all of the work and school can tire out people and make them more anxious. I think some advantages are that the shortened week would decrease stress and anxiety and also allow more free time for people. But some disadvantages are that there might be less productivity and less time for learning or working. I think that the pros and cons weigh out pretty equal but I still believe that there should be 4 days in a workweek.
In my opinion, I don’t think that a four day week would be very beneficial because we would still have to make up for that extra day, and teachers would just try to squeeze in their lessons, which would make both the teachers and students more overwhelmed, if they aren’t understanding what is being taught because the teacher is explaining it quickly. For me, it takes a while to understand certain concepts, and I don’t like being rushed at all, so I feel like it would really stress me out. Also, personally, if my school was four days instead of five, I think that I wouldn’t be very productive anyways, because I’m usually really lazy, and the extra day wouldn’t help me to get my work done, and I would probably just spend most of my day doing things that I enjoy, and schoolwork definitely isn’t one of them. However, I do think that I would be more productive if I was in school for those four days, but definitely not on the extra day we would have off. I do think that the amount of hours we go to school should be shortened though, but not the amount of days we go to school. I personally see work as a means to an end because I always think about the future outcome, and I always try to plan way ahead of time, so I’m always wanting to get good grades, so I can get into a good college. And besides, I think I just see it like that because that’s what my parents tell me, like to get good grades to get into a good college, so I guess I’ve just gotten used to thinking like that.
I think that a shortened work week would help me in school and out of school. When I’m in school, I’m stressing over work I have to do. When I’m at home, I’m stressing over going back to school. If I had an extra day to relax, I’d probably be less stressed and more productive because I wouldn’t be fighting the work as much. As it is, sometimes it feels like I’m careening into a wall every time I think about the work I need to do for school, or a test I have, or all the time I spend on school work alone. When this happens, I try to minimize the work I do in the moment.
School work would be less daunting if we had the prospect of less of it. If I knew I had less work to do, I’d be more likely to spend time on it rather than trying to do as little of it as possible. Sometimes, when I sit down to work, I’m just doing my best to procrastinate. If I knew I had less work, I could focus on single assignments instead of the multitude of homework and classwork I usually have.
I see work as a way to survive in the world we’ve created. If I don’t work now, I’ll be unsuccessful in the future. If I had a choice that involved me being financially secure in the future without drowning myself in work now, I would take it. I would choose to do things I want to do without trying to cram all the information schools want us to know into my brain at the speed they think we should. It’s odd that the work is for us, the kids, but it never feels like we’re doing it for us.
Recently, I have been thinking about how our school and work days are set up. What if we make the days longer, but less homework so kids can do more things after school? Or can we make the days start later so they feel more energized throughout the school day? These questions are both things i've thought about. In my opinion, I think think that school days should be a little longer because then we would learn more in our classes, then less homework. Lots of kids are complaining that they don’t want to be at school for that long , but what else do you have to do that’s more important than your education.
Our week should be shortened to four days. I have to try to fit everything I want to do on my weekends. I've no time to keep up with both school and community. My dad works very long hours and I barely see him during the week, so I would love to have that time to spend with him.
I love learning and I learn a lot outside of school. The time would not go to waste. I could learn a new language, work on my writings, or practice for my cello lessons. Having that weekend would give me a mental reset to feel rested for the week to come. My life would become relationship-oriented instead of grade- I often have to cancel on my friends because I am too overwhelmed.
I agree that our society values work greatly- what is school but a preparation not for life, but for work? I don't want to get good grades to get a good job to have things, but I don't see work as the end either. I just want there to be more to life than work. I'm a believer in the mantra "if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life". Money should not be the objective, nor should working for the sake of work. It should be passion that drives us.
My generation is thought for apathy to work, but that's not true to me. I understand the value of hard work and its rewards. It’s because I value these things overmuch that I say we should shift our focus. I would definitely accept the lower-paying job for more time off- I don’t need much, anyway. Just Jesus, good books, my community, and the time to enjoy them.
Having a shorter school week would make a world of difference. We only have two days of rest and relaxation and as soon as it starts I already feel like it’s almost over and I can never get over that. Five straight days can really start to break you down in terms of happiness. In the article, they write about how the workers increased productivity because they had less days, that is definitely because they were happier than normal and were trying to do work. The point of the four day week is to make people happier and (potentially) increase productivity.
@Jake Bigalke Everyone including myself agrees that the work to free time ratio is not healthy. For me personally I sleep though my first two periods on Mondays because my sleep schedule gets messed up every weekend. This is due to juggling homework, and hanging out over the weekend, with trying to get a little bit of free time before jumping into another 5 days of heaven. You say potentially increase productivity but I believe it would definitely increase productivity. Many people don't pay attention on Fridays and Mondays making people not understand the material, this leads to getting behind in those classes permanently hurting student productivity.
I do not agree with the idea of making the week be four instead of five days. Productivity and the importance of it is something that I think needs to be valued more, at least within today's generation. Many teens my age, not all but the majority and even including me in all honesty, are guilty of misusing free time. The more free time they have the more time they waste doing things that aren't productive, even when they have responsibilities that need to be done. Procrastination is a great problem today and shortening the week would encourage such a character in today's youth. Teaching them that life is hard and teaching them to face the responsibilities and hardships of life is much better in the long run than encourage them to run away from the trials, and extend the rest time. I am not saying that we should not teach them to escape into a healthy environment and rest from the problems, but the reality is that the majority don't ever want to get out of that environment, weakening their character. Two full-days every weekend, and the many holiday breaks we have in America, in my opinion, is enough time to rest and escape from work and school. Especially when compared to many other places where people struggle to even just survive basic needs. I'm grateful that my stress and my worries come from a hard but good education that benefits me, and not from the constant worry of having food in my table, a house to live, and clothes to wear.
A four day school and workweek could be optimal for students and employees. One extra day to spend time with family or just to decompress and catch up on life. For students especially, sometimes we are playing catch up on the weekends. Which means only one day for us to spend quality free time, where we don't have to have to worry about the assignments we have due on Monday. A four day week would improve some students' mental health. And sometimes one day is all we need for a breather.
I absolutely love three day weekends. One day to catch up on whatever I need to do and the rest is just relaxing. I would finally have the time to go to the beach or even stay home and just catch up on Netflix. But that's just me. I feel like some students still might procrastinate because they have a three days to do it. But I just like to get my stuff out of the way and enjoy the rest of the two days.
I strongly agree with the change of 5 days to 4 days during the week. Changing these days allows students to have more time to do what they need regarding everyone having certain things going on in their personal lives other than school. Students are going to school 5 days a week with only 2 days of time to themselves, which a lot of students, including me, spend one of those days doing assignments. On top of the tests, projects and homework, kids and teens hardly have any time to be kids; as said before everyone is busy working on school assignments, allowing one more day would result in less stress in every ones lives.
I agree with the idea of shortening the workdays from 5 to 4 days. It gives people more time to relax and for students to do their homework since there would be 3 days off instead if 2. This also allows friends and families to spend more time together. People are usually stressed from work and school so more time off means more time to relax and de-stress. This will be very beneficial, especially for students because they have so much material covered in one week and loads of homework and tests to do. This keeps them from getting enough sleep and can affect their mental health negatively. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed with homework and tests that I need an extra day off from school to catch up on sleep and have time to relax, however we usually don't get that. Shortening the workdays will help people be less stressed and could help improve mental health of students.
At the current school, I attend, the scheduling is unique and I only have to "go" to school 2 days a week, since we have 2 independent workdays and a day of online class. I agree to 4-day workdays instead of five however, I believe that there are pros and cons. Some of the advantages are that students would feel less stressed and more productive, allowed to have free time on weekends, and students will most likely be more focused in school for they don't feel as tired or stressed. But, some of the disadvantages are that fewer school days will equal more work to finish in a week, teachers will expect more from you, and teachers might give you more homework on the weekends because you have three days to finish them.
4 days of school would change my life! Sure, the teachers will load us with homework, but imagine a three day weekend, every weekend! I am not saying that summer should be shorter (if it were up to me it would be even longer.) Based on the Microsoft Japan test, the employee’s productivity increased by 40%. Making the year have fewer days will really just reduce stress, after all, average children spend more time at school or doing academic work than they do with their parents.
@Elliot C Reducing stress and increasing productivity sounds like a good thing, but at what cost? By removing a day of school, teachers will be forced to compensate by assigning far more homework, which does nothing to relieve stress. Also, homework is no substitute for a real teacher; students will not be able to learn the material in the curriculum nearly as well if they're forced to learn 20% more of it by themselves
The negligible decrease (or possible increase) in stress is not worth the amount of lost instructional time that simply cannot be made up through homework or individual worksheets. If we were to switch to this four day schedule, we would likely be unable to fit everything into the school year because teachers already struggle to teach everything with five days, so students will either take their final exams unprepared or have additional years added to the school year.
In my opinion, though I feel that 4 school days would be preferable to myself and most people, I would choose to keep my regular schedule of 5 days. Sure, 4 days sounds great. More free time to yourself, relief of stress, and best of all, less work. But is it less? In a standard school year, teachers have to get through all their lessons and ultimately, prepare you for the following year. If we were toke take away a day every week, it would be on full day waste. It doesn’t just go away, that day that has been taken away will com at a further date (as schools are expected to fulfill a certain amount of days. It will probably be taken from your summer break or even been added to your day. There is no way of getting rid of it, and just adding more to other days will add up to more stress. So, it would be correct if you take a meticulous overview on what taking another day away would cause. And even though it seems like a better option, you have to take into account the major consequences that come along with it.
Even though many people think that school should be shortened, I believe that school brings the most opportunities for people like me, who want to chase their dreams. More learning is for the better of us and our knowledge. The strongest weapon is education. The pen is mightier than the sword. With extra days off, we would learn less and not get the opportunities. I believe that school should be opened, but those who choose not to go can skip school on Monday. More school and learning brings more opportunities for a bright future.
I believe that the school/work week shouldn’t take off one more day, mainly because in my experience, not many students like school. They need it but they don’t want it. If we take off one day, the students might get greedy and protest to take off more days, eventually eliminating school. Then how will you get your education? School, in my definition, is supposed to guide you on how to do certain things in life because you may or may not use them in the future, with extracurricular classes such as art and music. You can’t avoid it just because you don’t want to participate in a couple of tests and do some homework. Sure, some might argue that taking away a day of school would help free up time for what they love. But what’s the point? You still have to do your homework over the weekend, the only difference is that you can start earlier. Doing what the student loves might not even help them. Tik Tok is one example. School is tough, believe me, I would know, but I just can’t see how dropping a day would relieve your stress, have time for your needs, or improve your education.
"I can't wait for friday" is something we all hear. We all get to Friday, burnt out and not productive and yet employers are still paying the same wages. I think employers should really look at this and record how much work gets done on each day of the week; see which day is the least productive. I bet it will be Friday. If you pay the same wages on Friday you should get the same output but this isn't true. Employers should see an increase in productivity per dollar spent as they are paying less wages and getting more output per day. I also believer this will decrease employee turnover. Now not all business will be able to do this but places like banks and law firms could try this. As the school week goes I think it would be great. I think that if students went for 4 days and teachers had friday as an optional day; a day to grade and plan if need be. It would help teachers as it would be more of a relaxed day for them not dealing with kids.
I completely agree that schools should only be 4 days a week, instead of 5. I also think that this could improve our sleep schedule. Being a middle schooler, I know that my brain is developing, forcing me to rest more. On the weekends I normally get 9-11 hours of sleep. But during the weekdays, I get about 6-7 hours of sleep. If I could get another day to sleep in late, that would give me about 30 hours of sleep in only 3 days. Almost the same amount I get in an average of 5 weekdays! Making me more awake for the school day.
I believe that this question has many different answers to many different people. In my opion i think there should be a shorter work week. I think that if there was a shorter work week you could get so much more done and then have a longer resting break. According to the article, “Microsoft Japan recently tested a shortened workweek and found that productivity improved by about 40 percent. If this four day work week isnt enough time then you could make the day longer. This is because if you only had to get through four days of work or school them being a little longer wouldn't bottom the people as much. Also I believe that by friday everyone is so tired and gets nothing done anyway. So if you eliminate the friday and maybe make the days a little longer everyone will get so much more done and have an elongated weekend.
I think the school and work week should be four days instead of five because the article presented a couple studies where productivity has increased when a company is switched to a four day work week and increased productivity leads to obviously more work being done, but also happier humans. A result of a shorter work week means having a longer weekend which allows people more time to recover from the work week and more time for people to have fun and spend their time how they would like to. I believe that is my school switched to a four day week more people would be willing to come to school and will get more done while they’re at school and for homework because of the motivation of a longer weekend and more time to spend with their friends and family.
Millennials are touching on the idea of more flexibility throughout the work community. My generation is seen as “lazy”, but what people don’t understand is that we are just taking advantage of the things in front of us. Technology advancements have allowed for more people to work from home more often, which creates benefits for both the employee and the employer. I think creating a four day week would be very beneficial to workers mainly because it allows for them to catch up on stuff and they are able to spend time with their family. I know many adults that even have to work on weekends, so creating a day off would at least give people who have to work extra hours a break.
The article talks about how Microsoft Japan just did a trail on four day weeks and it boosted productivity by 40 percent. Many people have been talking about this “four day week” for decades, but some do not see it happening in the near future. For example, Adam Grant said,”In America? I don’t see it happening anytime soon.” He is an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Wharton School of Business, who had made a speech about shortening the work week to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland earlier this year. In reality this is a very controversial topic, and I think that the new technology today is putting us in the right direction.
I agree with the idea of changing the school and workweek t o be 4 days. I support this because it gives everyone a little more free time to do wheat they need. For parents, they could spend time with their kids. Students can work on extra homework/extra credit. Students could have time to relax and de-stress. I know a lot of students who stress non-stop about homework and grades. They would love for the school week to be only 4 days. For me, my school is practically already 4 days a week. I have it really easy, so I cant come from a perspective where I really want the week to be 4 days. I also think there are some disadvantages to this idea. Having time off for me is just an extra day to wait until the last minute to do schoolwork. Having the week be 4 days for me would make me feel less productive. I think that this sounds like a good idea, but it probably wouldnt help students feel more productive.
@Georgia I disagree. I think that having the school/work week be 4 days instead of 5 would be nothing but beneficial to students and the working class. Teachers don’t consider the amount of work already assigned to us, on top of the hours and hours of work that they assign too. Personally, I think that having 4 days would lower stress in students, allow students to get more sleep during the week, and allow students to have time for other things. I understand that it would create more time to procrastinate, but with the extra day, you don't need to feel as stressed about assignments and are given more time to chisel away at something, rather than have to sit down for hours at a time and finish in one day.
@Georgia I definitely agree with your statement that having school four days a week will benefit students. I know from my personal experience that students are stressed out a lot because of all the homework they get, the extra curricular activities they are in and sports after school. This is a lot to handle for anyone, and having school four days a week can benefit the student. For example when they have the extra day to relax at home, they can be finishing up any homework, extra work and having a mental break from all this stress. I think this is a really great idea, but the disadvantages are not using the day wisely. I agree when you said that people can use this as an opportunity to procrastinate more and not finish their work, leaving them to be more stressed out. This would be a good idea, if students learn how to productively use their day instead of procrastinating.
I think it should be changed to 4 days because, there is less stress and you can spend more time mentally preparing for the next week. Also you could spend more time with your family and friends. One down side is if you work less then you can be paid less, some people need to work as much as they can to support there family. I also think if they did do this is should be on Wednesday so you have a brake in the middle of the week.
@MAKADANGDANG I agree and think that there are definitely some negative aspects to this idea of a “four day week”, but I feel like it will soon become inevitable because of recent technology. Many people are starting to work remotely now which creates more time at home with family, and less “office days” if you will.
Shortening school schedule will always be a need in my list. I am all in if we were to have a four day week instead of five. Why? Well firstly, I can finally have a day off to go beach or other places. My time and schedule is so busy with many things that a lot of time I don't get to even go outside because it's already night time. Secondly, I have more time to do homework. I am always turning in my homework super late because I am either to lazy or my schedule is just full of things. So having that extra day off can give me more time to do homework. Thirdly, we can have more time to spend with our family. Family is always first but a lot of times I have no time, so having that extra day can help a lot with spending time with my family. And lastly, more sleep. Us teenagers need a lot of sleep, this extra day off can help us to improve on our sleeping schedule so we do not have an attitude at school, or even home. Also it can help us to rest so we do not have to stress about all the homework we get or other things like that. But all in all I would love to an extra day off, just think about all the benefits.
@laesha I agree that now that now that I am a student in high school, I have much less if not no free time per day simply because I am working from when I get home until my head hits the pillow. A large factor of productivity in business as well as school is focus, and in extension the health of your brain and sleep. I get to school at 6:30 am, regularly get home at 4:00 or later and then I have another extracurricular after school 4/5 days of the week, so I have barely any time to get a healthy amount of sleep and complete all my homework. However, the other side of this coin especially for schools is how will our learning be effected by having another day to forget the things we learned, and will the “choppiness” of a four day week ultimately be a detriment to students because of the large lapse in learning. Also the more logistical questions begin to arise — how do we fit the lessons of a five day week into a four day week? Where will we get all these days off to still meet the correct amount of school days in a year? — which is most likely why a larger scale plan of the four day week has not been executed on. Ultimately I fall on the side of having a four day week because I am a tired high school student who wants a break, but in the end its not a matter of what the students prefer; It is the question of will our education suffer if we have one less day in a week to learn?
I think that a four day week has many positive aspects to it. Such as getting more time to do homework, extracurricular activities, and spending time with family. All of these sound great; however, if there are four day weeks, there is obviously going to be negative points as well. One of these would be the fact that there would be an entire day taken off of learning and completing a lesson which could result in a failing grade due to not being with the teachers. Another point would be that as a result of it, breaks could become longer. In my opinion, I think we should try a four day week but if it doesn't seem to work, go directly back to how it was originally.
I think that the four day work/school - week would be WAY better for our physical and mental state. I am a high school student and I have noticed that I am way more stressed now than I was in middle or elementary school. The four day school week would allow me to have more time to relax to have time for myself. Also, I would have more time to do schoolwork and bring my grades up. I think that the work week is would be about the same and would also have the same benefits. I don't see any downsides to this arrangement because quality over quantity right? I think that a large majority of my time is spent in or doing school work and an extra day would definitely benefit my classmates and I.
A four day work week sounds like it would eliminate a lot of issues that people struggle with on a daily basis. The majority of adults and students in our society today have problems with stress and anxiety, which can be assumed is caused by too much work. People don't have enough time to relax, wind down, and not always be focusing on everything that needs to get done.
I believe that with fewer days when you are required to be present at school or work, you will be much more likely to give your full attention and effort on the those days. Instead of having those five mundane work days when you might be tempted to become easily distracted, you make sure to pay attention and give your highest levels of effort because you only have to to be there for a short amount of time.
My school that I currently attend works with a flexible schedule only requires you to be in face-to-face classes two days a week. I find that it allows me to work at my own pace, learn in the ways that I feel most beneficial to myself, and stay very focused on those two face-to-face days! I think that the full five days of school - or work - is overwhelming and is not setting the employees or students up for success.
I do think that school should be four days a week instead of five. Students could get more rest, which would improve academic performance, and have more time to pursue personal interests. If school was four days a week, students would most likely be more willing to learn, participate, and try harder. Based off of the results of the Microsoft test, this seems like something we should try.
I feel that the week should be 4 days instead of five. I feel this cuz 2 days for the weekend is too short for kids to have a break from school. I feel that 4 days of school is enough learning for the weeks and 3 days for the weekend is good for kids to have a break from school. if you'd shorten the school days, so many kids would agree with you to do it. Many kids want the 4 days instead of five so that they could have an extra free day to hang with friends, surf, or do whatever they like do. I feel that the week should be 4 days instead of five. I feel this cuz 2 days for the weekend is too short for kids to have a break from school. I feel that 4 days of school is enough learning for the weeks and 3 days for the weekend is good for kids to have a break from school. if you'd shorten the school days, so many kids would agree with you to do it. Many kids want the 4 days instead of five so that they could have an extra free day to hang with friends, surf, or do whatever they like do. I personally feel that 4 days is better than five so that I could rest my brain for the next week we have school again. And I also want to have one more free day to surf or just spend my day away from school. That how I feel
It doesn't surprise me one bit that productivity in the workplace increased by 40%. So, should there be a four day week as opposed to a five day one? Well, that's not a simple yes or no question. There's more to it than that. We need to ask other questions in order to begin to find an answer: why should there be a four day week as opposed to the one we already have? Are people exhausted at work because they aren't getting enough breaks, or because they're being overworked? Does any of it have anything to do with the fact that many people hate their jobs, and are therefore exhausted, even if their job gives them enough breaks?
The first problem that comes to mind when considering a four day week is the fact that you'd be sacrificing 1/5 of your potential paycheck. That'll add up quickly, considering you'd be missing about 52 days of potential work out of the year. The median household income in the US is about $61,937 per year, which means that if the average American only worked 4 days per week, they'd only be making about $49,549.60 per year. That's $10k+ of potential money, gone, all because you decided not to go to work on Friday.
I think that pretty much sums it up. I do NOT think a four day week would be a good idea at all. Instead, I think employees deserve longer breaks so they aren't that exhausted.
@Clay Dean You made a good point. I agree with how you don't think that a four day week would be better than our current five day weeks. We don't hate the five day week because we don't want to work or go to school for four days, it's because of how the system has made us bored and annoyed. What's to say that after we get a four day week, people would start petitioning about a three day week? A two day week would be even better, or how about a no day week?
I 100% believe that the work week should be changed to 4 days. For me, after a while I can build up stress after having too much school work. When the weekend hits it is the only time I really get a chance to cool off, and settle down. The only problem is that on Saturdays I have gymnastics. It is right in the middle of the day so pretty much all of my plans for the day circulate around that. For me it sometimes feels like the weekend is not even a day long.
Last week I went to gymnastics class on Tuesday, and that day school was off for elections. Gymnastics was normal of course but my friend was different. It was as if she had slept all day and was full of energy and more enthusiastic than usual. So with this said I think having an extra day off of school/work would be beneficial. A 4 day work week would allow for an extra day to catch up and let your mind take a break.
At the school I go to, I technically do have a 4 day work week, as long as I get everything done by Friday. This has greatly reduced school-related stress, and honestly I think it has helped me improve my grades since middle school, where I had a normal length week and a pretty heavy workload. I think that the change should be universal, since a 3 day weekend is far more relaxing than the quick transition from being glad it's the weekend to being down because it's Sunday. It obviously would have the benefit of less stress, and could also help limit personal matters in the workplace by giving employees more time to figure these things out on their own time. There was also the point about the productivity boost in the article, which if it holds true means that people actually work better in a shorter amount of time. Overall, the positives seem to benefit both employee and employer, and I'm very much in support of the idea.
I love the idea of shortening the workdays and school to only 4 days a week.There can be ups and downs to making this happen. Yes, parents can finally hang with there kids an extra day. Kids can have a mental break to school. You have more time to do homework or even work if u need to catch up on something. Then there is the negative. If they cut off on weekly days for the school they will make our breaks shorter. And here in Hawaii, they cut off a whole month off of our summer vacation. The workplaces will be needing more people to work for them to cover all those shifts that people get a day off. If their kids get a day off on Friday and the parent doesn't then that doesn't even make sense. If they are making this decision to help parents spend more time with their kids they have to put a lot of thought into this. My opinion on this matter is as a Student and about to go to the work world in 2 years I love this idea but I always think about it this way if my grandparents or even parents could do it then I can too.
I think that a 4-day work week could be a good idea, but what bothers me is that Veterans day was this Monday and we had a day off school. So technically this work week was only 4 days long, and becuase we had one less day, we had to cram to get all our work done by the end of the week. So if we did decide to permanently shorten the work week I believe that companies and schools should lessen the load of work to be expected. I would really love to shorten the workweek but I'm not sure the benefits would exceed the repercussions that would occur in such a situation.
I agree that in school, a four day week would be more productive than a five day week. I am only required to attend class three days a week and feel I am more productive than when I had a five day week at a different school. I feel more focused when I have fewer school days and by the end of the week, I don't feel as tired and overloaded as I would with five school days. I think the bigger issue is the homework load though. My school days last all-day and go into the weekend because of homework. It is mostly that I am busy throughout the week with afterschool activities such as dance and theatre. But schools should be aware of that. Most of my teachers expect me to work on homework from one hour to an hour and a half. So they want me to spend 4-6 hours on homework every night? That makes for a 10 hour school day at least. I would be more productive and less stressed if I did not have as much homework.
To be honest, I am in the middle of this topic. For one, I think that yes, the week should be shortened to four days to help with work/school stress and mental health. I know that most of my friends would love to have an extra day added to their weekend, and sometimes, so would I. I am a lucky person though, I attend a school that is both online and offline and only have to go to classes twice a week (with the exception that I work 5-6 hours on Monday's and Friday's), so I feel as if my opinion might not be sufficient rather than those who do go to school/work five days a week. I think that the chances of the week becoming four days is slim. It is possible that people will have to work more hours or do more things in school if the week is cut down to four days because that one extra day is missing. For now, I enjoy my five day week, but I think it will be interesting to see how my opinion changes as I grow older and have more adult responsibilities.
@Kirra One alternative could be to simply cut out how much information we have to learn and slow down the earth. The constant fast paced life we currently live could slow down dramatically if we all had a 3 day weekend and it would allow people to have more fun; make people happier and allow them to learn what they want to learn.
I think having a 4 day week instead of 5 day's week would be more focused on the work and pressured but on the other days would be good for the workers because its is harder for for them but they also get to rest. The bad thing about having only a 4 day week is the workers forgetting about what they learned. For me I have bad memory so it would be difficult for me because, for me to learn something and understand the topic a lot better when I keep practicing it over and over. For a work schedule is sounds great for the workers but if they have to do a big project it isn't going to get done as fast as the other company that has a 5 week schedule. A school schedule is different because the students have to learn a certain amount in the year so when the kids have to go to school on the 4 day week they will be pressured to do more in the short week time.
In my school, I appreciate the schedule we have. We go in to class twice a week and the rest is online. When I was in regular public school, I was so exhausted and dreaded going almost every day, because it is quite a lot of stress for a young person to have to put up with, like trying to keep up a good social reputation while finishing your large pile of homework, and getting the energy to do it all over again the next day. I believe giving kids an extra day off and only making them go to school four days a week would really improve productivity and morale on campus. However, I don't think our economy/cities could function properly if everyone only worked four days. Things would not get done, and crucial jobs that keep up the welfare of cities could go without being done, causing problems for everyone.
Yes, I do think that all schools and companies should try this schedule. I feel like if they do try then they can decide if it is better or worse for the company. I also feel there are tons of advantages to doing this. For example, I feel that if you have that extra day off you have another day to get mentally prepared and ready for the week. Another advantage would be the workers/students being more focused because of the shortened week which means less time to finish work. Lastly, this extra day would give more time to families and children which would help workers and students with stress levels from home.
@Alla Baba
I also believe that the normal work and school week should be changed from 5 day to 4 day. I strongly agree that this can be beneficial towards worker, students and businesses as it allows for less stress, more free time and an increase in productivity. Overall, I believe this idea could benefit our physical and mental state. However, I also believe that there are some down sides to this idea. For example, Lessing the normal work day could lead to a decrease in pay, an increase in procrastination or even an increase in work hours. All in all, I agree with you that we should have a shorter week since mental health is just as important as education and work.
I feel as if the week should be shorter. School and work can be stressful and hard with only two days off. This new weekly schedule gives us enough time to relax while having enough time to terminate any remaining task we have.
Having a four-day work/school week would be amazing and I think that it should be implemented. The reason I believe that a shorter workweek would be good is that people need rest and are often overstressed about work. Giving more time for them to enjoy their life seems like it would always make them happier and more productive for the rest of the week. An advantage of a shorter week is more time at home with family and friends enjoying life. A disadvantage of a shorter workweek is fewer hours worked, therefore less money is gained by workers. Another advantage would be that shortening the workweek would allow for more workers to be hired in certain job categories. If I only had four days of work or school, I would be able to enjoy more time living life instead of grinding responsibilities. I would spend more time with friends being a dumb kid and enjoying what little time left we have as kids. I feel that working is now a lifestyle that would be better off being somewhat left behind, only becuase living a life of unrestricted joy and freedom sounds so much better than wasting your life away at a job you may not even enjoy.
Nytimes comment
I think that the school and workweek should be four days instead of five since you can have that extra day for a mental day off just to relax. Additionally, you could use this day to get a chunk of work done so that later you won’t have to do it. Plus, you could take a break and allow yourself to have some fun such as going to the park or seeing a movie with friends. On the other hand, the other four days will probably get extended so that teachers can have more time to teach. In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons since you can have one more day off where you can do anything.
I think that school should be four days instead of five days because juggling school, after school activities, homework, grades are all lot for young kids to handle. I know that we already have two days to do this but, those days are most likely spent doing projects, homework, and other schoolwork given to them by teachers. This will give them a day to hangout with family and friends and have a stress free day. People mental health is just as important as their education.
I think we should have shorter school weeks for sure. I may be biased but I honestly think we should. I feel like the one problem with this would be that someone would put forward the idea of making this idea sound a little worse in real life. The cuts would probably be something like longer school days, which I definitely don't like. Also, I think people would have a hard time deciding what day to sacrifice to the weekend gods and goddesses. I feel like no cuts are necessary. If Microsoft Japan can do it without cuts, america can too. I feel like the one issue is the productivity “bonus” may go away after a while because the extra weekend’s help may wear off and become routine, sill, I think the pros outweigh the cons.
Almost every kid I know has said at least once in there life they wish school was shorter or less days. If I’m being totally honest I have too! But now that I am older I don’t think that school/work should only be four days.
Schools/work shouldn’t change to four days because if you make school/the workweek shorter than you’ll have longer days. People automatically assume that if you shorten the workweek to four days instead of five you will have less school/work. But this isn’t true, if you have a shorter workweek, it means the days you are working you have longer hours. Most daycares aren’t open late, they normally closed around 6ish because that's when most parents come to pick up their children. If you shorten the work week like I said before you will be working late hours, so the child care centers will also have to change their hours and stay open later. This is bad for little kids (infants/toddlers) because when you are little you need a lot of sleep. If you aren’t leaving daycare till 7 or 8 it means you wouldn’t get home until later and the kids would eat dinner later, which would mean they wouldn’t end up getting to bed until late at night. This is not healthy for little kids, because like I said before, they need a lot of sleep.
@Ryan Altschuler This makes sense, but little kids can sleep at daycare. I think it would apply more to kids in middle school and high school, who also need a lot of sleep. I like how you look at the negative effects of having a shorter school week-- personally, I would not like to have a longer school day. I wonder if that is what would really happen. It might mean cramming more information or, as you mentioned, getting home later.
I think that it is not a bad idea to have a four day week. I feel like it would give you more time to relax. I think this because every Friday, you are so hype and happy that it is the weekend and before you know it, its over. The only thing I would not like is that our school has to get 180 school days in or you can not have summer. This means we would have less summer. Now I don’t necessarily agree with this any more. So we have to go to school less but in the long run, you will be going to school for the same amount of time. Also, if you extended the school day a few hours, that would not work either. There are some people that live 45 minutes away and that take public transportation home. Now what? You get out of school at 4:30 but some kids don’t get home until 5:15 to 5:30. That is just not fair and to be honest, my school gives a lot of homework so that is not going to work. So I think school is fine right now. There is nothing wrong with it so nothing should be changed.
I think that the work and school week should be 4 days instead of 5. I think this because it will help people get more things done for example the productivity improved by 40% at a microsoft building in japan. For kids this will help them get their work done better because they have more time. Also this would be better for obtaining information. For example, most kids don't remember the prior years work or the work that they did at the start of the year. This happens because kids are being sent to school for 8 hours a day plus 3 hours of homework (my grades average time doing homework each night) which totals at 55 house is the week not including weekends. In my opinion that is too much but it is not as bad as an adults work week. Some people go to work at 6:30 and get back at 6 to 7 oclock. That is absurd and they still have to do work outside of the office. I think that it would be more beneficial if the week was shortened for the adults and the kids.
I believe that that work weeks should be shrunken, but school weeks can stay the same. If there were only 4 days in a school week, then I would definitely slack off more. If I had another day to do work, I would be doing nothing except playing video games. I wouldn't be savoring the weekend like I do now. And also, TGIT doesn’t have the same kind of ring to it.
My mind strongly believes in the thought of having a 4 day work week instead of 5 days. As a middle school student, these years are rough. I try to get as much sleep as I possibly can but that isn't even enough. Schools and jobs should give everyone Wednesday off. The reason for this is because it is in the middle of the week which doesn't give too long of a work or school period at once. If Microsoft Japan saw a 40 percent increase in productivity with this, imagine what kids grades would look like at school and the job productivity! I strongly believe that all schools and jobs should move on from the 5 day week, and install a 4 day work week.
I think that the work week should only be four days long instead of five. I think it should be four days because, like the article said it will boost productivity in school and outside of school. Whenever my school has a three day weekend I come back to school feeling like I had a productive weekend. It also gives people time to rest and catch up on any missed sleep. There definitely are a few cons to having a four day work week. The days might be slightly longer, or there might be a bit more homework, but I think in the end the pros will out way the cons.
I think the school/workweek should be four days instead of five, because I personally think the weekends are too short. You barely have time for anything, and before you know it, it’s over! I also think that three-day weekends would improve focus in school, since you are well rested and hyped from the fun three-day weekend. Some of the disadvantages for a shortened week are that you might get less done, since there is a missing day, but some of the advantages are that you might be more awake and alert, so you get lots of work done, and are efficient. If there was only a four-day workweek, I would have more time to do things I want on the weekend, and I would be happier. I definitely think that it would increase productivity, and I am really supportive of only having four days of work. In my future, I think I would rather have a job that pays more but has less days off, because if I have a lot of money, I would be able to do more things I want to do on the few days off I have. Also, if I work at a high paying job, when I am retired I would have more money to spend.
Every kid has said at least once in their life that they want the school week to be shortened. I mean we’ve all felt that way before in our lives since school/work can be so stressful. Kids can spend from 120-168 hours on school every week. If people have one more day off they would have time to sit down, sleep in, get more work done, and rest. I know it seems like the pro’s might go on forever but we have to think. Some kids that maybe spend their school hours as the only fun they have would disagree. My mom is a teacher and one year she had a student that was living in a homeless shelter with his parents. School was the only way to make friends, learn, and have some fun. There was no going home and playing video games, or watching TV every day after school. I do agree that some kids could just waste time on their extra hours. Kids would get in the habit of staying up late every night and wouldn’t get as much sleep. They wouldn’t be as awake and ready to learn for the four days of the week. Also four days might seem great but you probably wouldn't get paid as much as before since you are working less hours in a week. In a shortened week kids may not have the opportunity to learn as much as before because you are going less hours. Would you rather have to go to school longer every day to make up for that one extra day, or have less, or shorter breaks. There are definitely many pros and cons and in this case I don’t know which one out numbers the others.
I do agree that school weeks should be shortened to four. I feel that this would be better for the students and their health because from the perspective of a student, I can tell you that school is one of the most stressful things in our lives. We constantly have to focus on school and make sure we do the work so we’re prepared for the next day, but by the time we’re done it’s usually very late, especially for the students who live farther from the school. We never have time to relax, have fun, and just be kids because we always have work for school. We could also be getting more sleep because we have to wake up very early and get to school by a certain time which is yet again harder for the students who live farther from school. Another thought is maybe not shortening the days, but having school start at a later time so we wouldn’t be falling asleep in class.
I think that if the school and work weeks were shortened, it would be extremely helpful, and school would be less stressful. If my school had four day weeks, I feel that I would be in less of a rush to complete my homework on the weekend, and I'd have more time to do activities that I enjoy.
I think it would be a great idea to shorten school. Of course I’m biased because I don’t like school, but it’s called student opinion for a reason. If the week was shortened, people may argue it’s a bad idea because we would get taught less. But really it means with less time, we would get taught the things that actually will be helpful. Any this would also put a huge stress relief on kids. Having an extra day to relax, do what you want, and maybe even do some homework, would help children to unwind and be a little happier. It would help a lot more than grownups may realize.
Personally, I do believe that work weeks should be four instead of five. An extra day off gives people time to mentally recollect themselves and get prepared for the week. Also, it gives students more time to get stuff done. An extra day would benefit a lot of people. Even though it may mean more school time, you’re still getting another day added to your already short weekend. Also, this can help teachers prepare, too. They can get together a lesson plan they may need to or grade tests and assignments.
I believe that the work and school week should be condensed to Thursday because everyone becomes fatigued by Wednesday and Thursday. By mid-way through the week we have no motivation or energy to keep going. We begin to act like boxers, clinging on to their opponent to conserve energy, as we slowly trudge through the long week. Not only do our Brains and bodies become fatigued, we also get a lot of stress that builds up in our heads. Stress is the worst type of pain as it inflicts many other types of mental challenges like anxiety. The five day week puts a lot of pain mentally and physically and we need a four day week to ease that pain.
Shortening the week down to four days would drastically increase the lives of students. One reason that would help is that it would give kids a relaxation period and more time to complete big projects instead of them having to stay up late to complete them. Additionally, it would give students more time to focus on activities outside of school, instead of having the main focus of their year be on school. It would also give them an extra day for sleeping, and your growth hormone is released during sleep.
The idea of having four days weeks sounds really good, but once you start thinking about it, it wouldn’t be as beneficial as you think. For example, the state requires a certain amount of school days. If we cut off one day, we still have to make up for it, resulting in longer school years and shorter breaks. I also think that the stress of high school is necessary as it might drive someone to work harder and take the time to problem solve on their own. If we were to be laid back I think our motivation levels would drop. We would think a class is too easy and we really couldn’t be able to challenge ourselves and develop a stronger mind.
I think the school week should be 4 days. Some advantages of a four day week is that it will increase productivity in students. I feel that students will work harder if they have a longer break to look forward to. Also, it will give teachers more time to review materials which can help make up for lost time from adding another day to the weekend. On the other hand, some disadvantages may be that the school year will be lengthened, cutting in time meant for summer and winter breaks. Also, it may interfere with sport schedules and lead to more difficulty than it’s worth.
I believe that students should have a shorter week. Kids at my school, and every other school, are very stressed from the amount of work that is assigned to us. Giving us one day a week to have off and give us the opportunity to catch up on sleep, catch up on homework or something else is huge. Currently I don’t get nearly as much sleep as scientists recommend for someone my age becase i am up late doing homework. This causes me to be tired in class and not be able to focus in my first period class the next day. A day would give the students an opportunity to get a nice chance for us to be well rested. The shortened week also allows it easier for students to take weekend vacations every once in a while, which can reduce stress because we can be experiencing nature instead of being cooped up in a school for 7 hours or in our rooms doing homework till 1 AM. Like the article mentions productivity rises and would most likely rise in students as well. This would benefit kids because they would be getting better grades and allow them to get into a better college which might change their life. The goal of school is to be able to set up a child for the real world and i believe that doing this would give the children the best chance they can get.
While a shortened workweek sounds really nice in theory, it may not be so nice in reality. If the workweek was shortened, there'd be many good things such as more time to do hobbies, extra days to work on homework, and to catch up on sleep. Though those all sound great, there's also the factor of the reactions of a shorter workweek. Already in today's society many adults, teens, and even children suffer due to stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental issues. With enough time to work on things, school-children are already stressed. If the work week was shortened it would shorten the time for which these students are allowed to get their school-work done, likely causing an even greater amount of stress and panic on their shoulders. Along with the mental aspect, implementing such a big difference in today's world would shift every person's day to day life. A dramatic shift like that in such a short time can lead to many unknown side-effects. Many children and teens who go to school during the 5-week period would have to shift sleeping schedules, and their overall work style and life to adjust to the difference in what they would be doing.
Overall, it might allow a higher productivity rate than average, but the mental and emotional side-effects of the shorter workweek should outweigh the productivity. The workers health and lives should be thought of before the company's profit and productivity.
@Jordon F.
Speaking from the students perspective, I am up late every night catching up on homework. I completely agree with your comment on sleep deprivation and the mental health aspect of being overworked and exhausted. If given three days for the weekend, students would be more rested and hopefully stay healthy by getting proper sleep and by having one less day a week to sit in the classroom and spread germs.
At first this idea is quite appealing, but actually incorporating a shorter work week would mean possible pay cuts, and if not pay cuts then longer individual days for both students and workers. So we should stay with the five day week. The cons immediately outweigh the pros. With most high school students schedules already crammed with extra circulars and homework and not getting enough sleep as it is, lengthening the school day is not appealing. And if not the school day, then the school year would have to be extended, which causes problems not just for plans but also for seasonal companies that rely on the summer, with a shortened summer, they will protest the change. If the school day stayed the same, there would be more open space and time to do fun things, but there would be plenty of people that would waste time instead of taking the time to do other things when they could be at work earning their pay. Work should be a means to an end, not the end goal. You never work just to work, there is always an end goal. Those that work to work are striving for that feeling of accomplishment the work gives, that is the end goal. For a future career its not so much the pay of the job as the job itself, what am I doing. But a work-life balance is quite appealing, but the higher pay, not as much time off in the regular week is more appealing. With a higher paying job you can save what you earn to take a large vacation instead of multiple small ones, so I would take the longer hours.
I strongly agree with the idea of a 4 day week. The fact that Japan is finally taking action to test this idea is so incredible. Not only do I personally love this idea, but the fact that it has been proven that it increases the productivity of workers by 40% is very significant. This alone should be a big enough reason to make the change. Aside from the statistics, it would let us students and workers “focus less on pay and more on balance”. Especially in society today, we need more time to debrief and find a good balance. The atmosphere we live in is so stressful and I feel like so many people would benefit from one extra day.
Though it’s not like I enjoy having another day of work set out for me, I think that having five days a week might just be overall better for us. Yes I see that it states that working has been improved by 40% but it’s the same with getting 30 more minutes of sleep a night, there’s a lot of factors that can affect how productive you are in a day. I would only assume that it would mean that school years would be longer to miss the days of no school, as well as the teachers may have to teach and cramp more things in our brains all at once in order to keep up with this time scheduling. I don’t think we should close this idea all together, we all need breaks from our day to day lives and even if it’s only one day it’s enough for many. I just think that maybe we shouldn’t change all our weeks to four days.
Being out of school an extra day out of the week would allow for students to have extra time to work on their homework, have a job, or volunteer. This would allow a day for athletes to make up work outside of class without falling behind even more. A four day week would allow for students to get a longer break from each other, which would decrease the disciplinary problems between students. Depending on what day is taken out, whether Monday or Friday, it would just push the “Monday” attitude over to Tuesday. With the attitude pushed over to Tuesday, or taking out Friday, you are still having a day of students being unproductive. Personally, I think a four day week would be better because I could spend a day at home doing whatever work I needed to do. And then I could spend the rest of the day relaxing, rather than stressing about what I need to do next.
Shortening the week by one day can make the biggest difference. With school and sports, it's hard to find time outside of school to do other things, like doing something fun with my friends.
Shortening the week allows me to be more relaxed and not as stressed about all the work I need to get done. I can use my extra time to catch up on work, catch up on sleep, and get together with friends without having to decide between them and doing homework.
I find myself spending all of my free time doing homework, which becomes exhausting. I believe that during school, you should be able to finish most of your work; however, that is hard when you are constantly working for five days a week. As a result, your productivity goes down. Like the article says, having a shorter week allows people to be more productive in a work space, so it would have the same effect on students in school.
While I do see benefits in the four day work week. I personally am against it. I like the five day week and I feel that I would prefer it to a four day week. While the occasional treat of a long weekend is great, I find that once I get going in a week I don’t stop. It takes me a bit to get really productive every week, after recovering from the weekend, where I have time all to myself. I feel that a longer weekend and shorter week would make it more difficult for me to get into that super productive state every week. While there are studies proving that a four day week makes employees more productive, I do not find that to be true for me. I always find that I am more productive and produce my best work on a five day week over a four day week. Furthermore, having a four day week would likely extend the hours of the school day or the weeks in a school year, and I would much prefer a shorter day or year with longer weeks to shorter weeks all year but a longer year.
I do think that the school week should be shortened to four days. A four day week would be very beneficial for students. They would have more free time instead of having most of their weekend consumed by homework. I feel this would also cause students to be a lot less stressed and have more fun. Students will probably do better in school as well. The article states “Microsoft Japan made headlines recently after it tested a shortened workweek — four days instead of five — and found that productivity at the company improved by about 40 percent.” A four day week would improve the productivity of students at school.
I personally don’t think that 4 work days a week is a bad idea for working adults, but I don’t see any benefit in shortening the school week. Some may argue, it’d increase work and productivity (in school) but those are the same people who complain about how much work we have currently. Once you look into the technicality of things, it doesn’t seem so great. At first I was on board too, but having to balance work on the weekends and free time, it almost feels like we’d be better off with the extra school day. Maybe in a perfect world, I could see students being productive in a 4 day school setting, but it would just lead to more complaining about school than there already is. See, as much as you might hate your teachers and all the work school piles on to us, you can’t ignore the fact that school is still a safe space for a lot of kids. I’d much rather see my friends 5 days a week than be bored out of my mind watching reruns of shows or trying desperately to finish the work my teacher wasn’t able to explain in the short amount of time we see them each day. Less than 4 hours to teach a lesson seems extremely unreasonable for teachers and students. Less school hours would also mean less time for teachers to connect with their students. Without that extra time teachers would be seen more like robots trying to force an idea through our heads than real people.
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I think that the school week should especially be four days instead of five. I think this because on school days before and after you’re at school, your life is still built around school. The time you go to bed at night is affected by school-related homework. This time you wake up is based on how long it takes you to get to school and what time your school starts. These are natural things that are still affected even while we’re not in school. I think to give us one more day on the weekends decreases the amount that school affects our natural and social lives. One less day of school is one more day where you can do what you truly want, and need to do. I also believe that the workweek should be 4 days instead of five. If the productivity of workers increases when they get more time off of work than its a win-win for them and their employer. Also since most jobs don’t have summers off or many vacation days, a worker’s life outside of there job may come down to three weeks and weekends every year for decades. This seems like it would lead to a lot of unfulfilled lives and missed opportunities to be with friends and family due to a large amount of time spent working.
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I think that the school and work week should still be five days, but change the school and/or work hours. Changing the number of work/school days a week doesn’t really make a difference, in my opinion. Having this extra day off, many people could be using this time if it were a school/workday to catch up on their work or learning more new things. As a student, I really don’t think that having an extra day added to our weekends is going to have any benefits. It just takes a day of education out. Although there are advantages of having a shortened week, like getting more time to rest and spend time with family members and friends, I still think that the disadvantages outweigh it. Basically, it's the same as asking “Would you rather work hard and earn enough money to retire early or work fewer hours, earn less money, and work all your life?” I would rather work hard and then rest for the rest of my life than working until I’m dead.
I feel that instead of limiting the amount of work/school days to four days, we should delay the hours to two hours after what we normally start working or school. That way we can at least get some rest. I wouldn't mind getting the two extra hours added to the end of the day
What Mr Hunnicut said does not apply for me, because I think that working more will help you further in life, because when you have children, you will be able to raise them in a good way. When I grow up, I would want a job that pays a lot, even if it requires more working hours, that way I can provide myself with what I need, and others as well. A low paying job would not be what I would like because the pay would not satisfy the dreams that I have wanted to pursue since I was a child like being a lawyer, or a doctor.
I would love a shorter school week. But I’m not sure if a shorter week would necessarily be good for educational purposes. I can see how it would increase productivity in workers, though, because you might feel like you have less time to finish everything, therefore be more diligent. But you might feel more stressed, too. I think that more studies should be done to prove that four day weeks are better, not only in a few fields like medicine, but in all fields, including teaching. If I did have a four-day school week, I do not think I would waste more time. I have many hobbies, including ballet, tennis, piano, and cello, already keeping me busy on a regular two-day weekend. I’m sure that many people have hopes to get into good colleges, get good jobs and earn good money, including myself, but I truly do not think that that should be the main incentive for working or studying hard. You should be happy doing what you do. I would like to enjoy myself, have some time for leisure, and have sufficient money to live a happy life, rather than to be stressed, have no time to enjoy myself, and be super-rich. You can’t buy time with money!
I think that the days of the week should be left as they are, but instead shortened. That way, we won’t forget our tasks from the previous work/school day, and we will get much more sleep, as people nowadays don’t get enough. The advantages of a shortened week are that people get more time to themselves, and possibly get to spend their time with loved ones. They also have the chance of productivity going up. Disadvantages include, but are not limited to, time lost when you can be finishing up your work or learning and less money made. Finland is a country with shorter school days and less homework. Their schools do better than many schools in America and other countries. Many people consider it the best in the world. I believe that instead of having fewer days in a week, maybe we could be like Finland, and have shorter days.
@Shahrin Kader I agree that maybe three days is too long and that we might forget our tasks the next day. Sometimes, when I come back after a three-day weekend my brain feels mushy and it takes me a while to get back into the flow of things. Unless the teacher assigns homework to make sure that you do not forget the information. I also agree that shorter days might be better so that we get more sleep. But maybe shorter days would increase productivity, too. Students might be able to stay more focused in shorter classes than classes that drag on for a long period of time. Also, there would be less time to get things done, so classes might be more productive.
I do think that the workweek should be four-days instead of five-because it not only increases productivity, but it also allows workers and students more time to do what they enjoy and spends their lives with their family. The advantages are, more productivity, higher attendance, decreased stress, efficient time usage, and student and worker satisfaction. The disadvantages are, workers might not be able to meet the requirements, unutilized labor, and when they have to work on the day they shouldn't, they won't feel like doing anything. How it should work depends on the industry or school, but I know that this four-day week will not come to American schools because schools haven't changed despite tons of evidence showing why it's flawed. However, for work, it could happen. Employers can be convinced to have four-day weeks because it increases productivity but sometimes they don't want to take the risk. The cons can be easily solved by changing how the four-day weekend works, for example, you can let workers work on Friday to get rid of unutilized labor. If they don't meet the requirements you can add an extra hour of work to another day. I think the pros outweigh the cons in a four-day week. For school, I think that it could start later, and I would spend my time doing things I enjoy. I'd get a job that pays me more because I can retire early, and if its a job I enjoy, I don't lose anything.
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I think I would be less stressed and more focused. Now I would have an extra day to study and let the information soak in. I could do more things with my life, too. Maybe I could travel somewhere for the day, I could have more time to do hobbies. It would be great to relax, whichever day of the week it is. A break from school is always needed. More sleep could also help increase productivity too, because some students (Like me) have to get up really early to get to school. An extra day can also be used to catch up on sleep. ~💛
@Christina Like you, I wish I had an extra day to do more things with my life. There should be a balance between your life outside of school and your school-life. Right now, it feels more like we only have a school-life because even during the weekend, we are still overflowed by homework. If we had an extra day, we would be able to take advantage of what weekends are meant for- relaxing and taking a break from working.
If it were up to me I would definitely shorten the week down to four days. I also would not lengthen the days we have but maybe shorten the summer break that we as students receive. I think that this would solve many problems that students and teachers both face. I think that this would give a solution to the “summer slide” that teachers always talk about over the summer break. To the students, sure the summer would be shortened but there would be less stress on us as the workload would be more manageable with less time during the week in school. The placement of this extra day off would be crucial. I think the best time to place this day off would be in the middle of the week on a Wednesday. This would give kids a chance in the middle of the week to catch up on assignments that might be due later on in the week. Another pro would be productivity. If kids know they have a day off halfway through the week then they might work harder in the time that they do have. Sleep is another thing that would be boosted. If there is a day halfway through the week off, then they have a chance to catch up on their sleep and might be more productive in that way too.
@Ezra Beidler-Shenk
Like you, I wouldn’t mind at all if summer break was reduced if it meant shorter school weeks. Personally, I feel that our summer vacation is too long right now as it is--over two months is a lengthy time to have very few obligations. Right now, we have 36 weeks per school year, but if we shortened it to four days a week we would probably have around 45, which honestly doesn’t seem that bad. If that were to happen, our summer break would last around a month or a little less; still plenty of time out of school. I also liked your idea about having Wednesdays off because it’d be nice to have a break in the middle of the week to catch up on things and prepare for the next two days ahead. However, I feel that some students might eventually find it tiring and stressful to have to continually be in and out of school for a few days at a time, meaning more would prefer to have Fridays or Mondays off. But I completely agree that we’d have a more manageable workload and additional students catching up on sleep if we have that extra day off every week regardless of whichever day it’s on.
In general, I think that a four-day workweek has its ups and downs. It really depends on the constraints- will there be more hours per day? What day of the week will the extra off day be on? And will something else change to make up for lost time? Because I am still in school, I am going to focus on that aspect of it. I would imagine that we would need either a longer school year, more daily hours, or fewer off days the rest of the year. But I think this might be possible without any of this. How many hours of time each day do you spend idle? Probably a lot. Especially leading up to breaks or holidays, schooltime is more about watching movies, parties, or other things. Teachers would just be forced to fit all of their learning into a tighter schedule. While some students and teachers may scoff at this, I think it makes more sense. Yes, your school hours would be more work-filled, but instead of school 'fun' time, where all your activities are decided by your teacher, you could spend that time at home, doing things you might enjoy more, or doing something more productive, like homework, getting exercise, or taking a mental health day. Lots of students are under immense stress and pressure because of school, and one more day might be the way to make school less stressful and idle, but more relaxed. Yes, school would be more intense, but you would have another whole day of doing something you want, not something your teacher decides for you.
I have a very strong belief that students’ workload should be lessened. A four day week is an option I am certainly not opposed to, but I think it’s not the answer. The core of the problem lies within the foundations of the school system. Schools are run on the belief that the more work you do and the better you score on tests, the more you are progressing. This is almost never true. If you work day and night, trying to get your assignment done, you are not learning. You are simply trying trying to get your assignment done. It can feel like there is no point to the assignments when there often is, it is just not being correctly executed. Also, schools sometimes think that if you are enjoying what you are studying too much, you are not learning. In my experience, it is quite the contrary, the more you like the material, the more you retain it. So, to conclude, I believe that it is not changing the amount of schooling that will help students, but the quality of the education given to them.
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I think that a 4 -day workweek would be good for all businesses. In the article, Natalie Proulx states that Microsoft Japan had a 40% increase in productivity. Not to mention that most workers would like a shorter workweek and worker happiness is also very important to businesses. Executives need to see and understand this so that everyone can begin to get a little bit happier.
A four day week seems so much better than a 5 day week. This is because to me school can be really stressful and sometimes only have the weekend, which is two days, as a break is not enough. I would become a lot more dedicated towards school and motivated because I’d have an extra day of rest. I think students grades would improve and there would not be as many students falling asleep in class.
Lots of children want to shorten the week simply because of less school, but what they don’t think about is the effects of shortening the week. I think that we shouldn’t shorten the week. If we did shorten the week to only 4 days, then the school district would either take weeks from our summer break or require us to do more independent learning. Many students struggle with independent learning, and less summer break would destroy plans with their family. Yes, a shortened week would give you more time to relax, but would it really mean that much? People will eventually get used to a shortened week and keep asking for more days off. Maybe they could shorten each school day, but only having 4 days a week is too short.
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I believe that having a shortened weekday wouldn’t be too beneficial in a school environment. Teachers would just give much more homework and attempt to cram their lesson plans into the four day school week that was meant for five days. If it’s the case that school has longer hours per day to keep it similar to the number of hours of a five day week, then that’s more than 2.5 hours added onto the end of the school day, essentially making school end at 5:30 (other than the usual 3:00). I don’t see how this could work unless the lesson plans were redesigned to work for four days instead of five, which doesn’t seem likely at all.
I think the work week (or in my case, the school week) should be four days long. My teacher brought up the point that if that’s what happened, then we’d have to add on to the end of the school year. But I think not. This is due to the fact that Finland (or maybe Sweden) has shorter school days, and less homework and they have a better education system than we do. I think that having a five day school week increases pressure on kids because they don’t have any time to do all their homework (or at least that’s how I feel with 2 hours a night). If we could simply get rid of homework, shorten the school week, and increase the effectiveness of teaching then I think kids would be able to learn better, and be met with more academic success. Now, increasing the effectiveness of teaching is not a plan to get rid of teachers, but instead to find a universal way to increase the ability of a kid to take in information. By doing this you wouldn’t even need to add on school days into the summer. I think we, as a country, should do this to better improve how we learn. I believe in this, especially because I’m in a public school, and while it is a very good public school, it doesn’t have anything close to what my previous charter school had. If public schools got nearly as much as charter schools due in funding then maybe this would be a different world, but they don’t, so maybe shortening the school week is the next best thing.
Five day work and school weeks have dominated American society for generations, becoming routine for the majority of Americans, and people all over the world. We have been so accustomed to it that those who regulate work/school schedules typically don’t consider how a shortened schedule would affect, and potentially benefit, their employees or students. From my experiences as a student, switching from a five to four day week would provide numerous benefits, with only little drawbacks. Having a shorter week would allow us to focus our energy into working harder, for the time we are at school, and allow us to feel more independent, develop our interests, during our lengthened weekend. Increasing our time off would also improve the moods of both students and teachers (and presumably workers and employers), during the week, providing an overall improved experienced. The one detriment I see to this prospect would be lengthened school days. With a combination of school itself, sports and other activities, and homework, the weekdays would likely grow in stress and frustration. However, the margin by which it would increase, I believe, does not negate the overall benefits of this system, which is why I strongly believe both the work and school week should be shortened to four days.
In your head a four-day week might sound great, but I disagree. I think that the days should just be shortened. Instead of being in school from 8-3:30 I think it should be from 10-3:30. This would give students more sleep and give them a chance to be more productive and attentive during class. A four-day week will give you a longer weekend but it will still have the same outcome as a regular week. You won’t catch up on sleep and it won’t boost productivity. Overall, a shortened day would be more beneficial for students than one day off.
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@Jayden Vance This may have just changed my mind! I think that giving us a chance to have more sleep or giving us shorter days will help us with our productivity. A four-day weekend sounds great but being able to do more work and not feel so slow sounds even better!
In my opinion, I do not think weekends should be extended by a day. The problem that most students have in school is probably their sleep schedule, they know that they need more sleep but they don’t because of homework or projects or studying for tests. An example of a country with a thriving educational system is in Finland. The Finland educational system has shorter days for students and less homework, instead, they focus on collaboration. The result of shorter school days is that the students can get that extra hour of sleep in, and with less homework, they can get to sleep earlier getting them maybe another extra hour of sleep. Even if this causes classes to be less fun and more educationally dense and boring, at least they don’t fall asleep in class, you learn better when you’re awake not when you’re asleep.
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I think that the work/ school week should be shortened to 4 days a week rather than 5 days. A 4 day week would allow for more productivity in a person over the week. In the article it states ̈Microsoft Japan made headlines recently after it tested a shortened we, 4 days instead of 5, and found that it increased productivity by 40 percent ̈. This means that if you have fewer days in a week than the company’s productivity will go up.
1
I see work as an end. The only reason I work so hard is to constantly get good grades. I work to get into a good high school. Once I'm in a good high school, I will continue to work to get into a good college. Once I get into a good college I will work to get a good job. Once I get a good job, I will work to get even higher pay. Once I get an even higher pay I will work to retire early. Once I retire then I might not do anything else. I might just live on the money I have and not do anything else but getting a hobby if I get bored. So really, in the end, I'm working so hard so that in the future I can live an easier life earlier.
1
In my opinion a 4-day work week will be better for students. Schools can then give a little more homework since we have more time. Also, we will be more awake and attentive during class. Classes might be more filled with information but we will be ready to consume all of it since we are more awake and relaxed. Therefore, all of this will make school a more productive place.
In the future, I would rather have a job that pays more and that requires more work. My parents are doctors and work all the time. Whenever they can we travel together. During the week, however they’re rarely home before 7:00. I like it this way because I can do things my parents don’t allow while they are not home. Then, during the summer, we can afford vacations. It’s a win win situation for me right now and me in the future.
1
I definitely think that the work/school week should be shortened. I think that if we decrease the work week then productivity would go up like mentioned in the article. If the school week was decreased, students would have more free time because they would have more time to do their schoolwork that takes up so much of many kids weekends. The same would apply to adults , who would have more time to do things they enjoy and try new things. I think that if we decrease the work/school week, the country would be happier.
1
I always imagined how useful a four day work week would be, but never imagined anyone experimenting with it. The 40% improved productivity from Japan is super promising that this may be effective in jobs. If this transfered over to school weeks I think I would be more productive in school because I would have an extra day of rest. Having an extra day of rest would improve my motivation and dedication at school. I think we would see an improvement and growth in grades with students as well. All schools and companies should try this.
I would love to have a 4-day school week. I would be less stressed, and I would have more time to relax or to spend time with my family. Although it gives our teachers less time to teach us things, it gives us more time to have fun, sleep, and focus on our mental health. I hope that one day the school system will change and we will have 4-day school weeks.
5
@Grace Moan I agree. Students need time to focus on themselves instead of constantly being over-loaded with school work and unneeded stress.
@Grace Moan You bring up a lot of good ideas about having a shorter workweek. I think what people don't realize is while work and school are important there are other important things such as sleep, mental health, and spending time with family. We need to readjust our priorities to realize the benefits of a shorter workweek.
Definitely you already work hard enough just for two days off and then there is no way off coming back fro that and with three days off you get more stuff to do with kids a second job or even doing stuff for your self and maybe simply just for relief