by Suzanne Rose

Created on: June 25, 2010

Around the country, schools are considering the benefits of four day school weeks.  There are both advantages and disadvantages to such a schedule for both the teachers and children.  The following are some you may want to consider.

Pros

The school will save on the cost of electricity

With a four day school week the school will save on the costs of electricity.  Adding on a few hours after the regular school day when the school is already cooled or heated depending on the season is not as much as it would cost to heat or air condition the school for an entire extra day.  The school might also be able to save on some costs such as only paying janitorial staff to clean four nights instead of five. 

Teacher and students may enjoy the three day breaks every weekend

A lot of teachers may like have an extra day to their weekend.  It will give them a chance to run errands that may be difficult to do during the weekend such as going to a doctor’s appointment.  Kids might also like the extra long weekend as well.

Cons

Children may have difficulty with such a long school day

With the four day school weeks the children usually have extra long days at school.  This may be very difficult for children.  A lot of kids have short attention spans and they may start to “space out” after such a long day.  They may have trouble focusing for this amount of time and may learn less.

There will be less time for extra-curricular activities

Many kids do sports, clubs and other extra-curricular activities after school.  This type of schedule would make that much more difficult since it is likely to be late by the time the students are done with school.  This would include both school-sponsored and community groups.

It would make it difficult for parents who work five days a week and have children too young to stay home by themselves

There are many households in which two parents work.  If the children are too young to stay home on their own, which would include most of the elementary school set, then the parents would have to pay for the cost of a babysitter or daycare.  Cost savings of the school may simply be passed to the parents.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to the four day school week.  School officials should consider the above points when making this decision.

Learn more about this author, Suzanne Rose.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.