Is the four-day school week good for education?

I think we should have a 4 day school week because kids could get a chance to catch up on sleep and thats why kids are so restless during class also i think if we have a 4 day school week the it should only be for middle and high schoolers not elementary because you figure middle and high schoolers are in there teens and can stay home alone and take care of themselves and get the little kids off the bus while there parents are at work

I don't think that we should have a four day school week because in the summer, we will have to make up for the days that we missed. 4 days at school means, less education and more school time in the summer. Think about that. We always have to have 175 days of school, and if we have 4 days a week of school, then more school in the summer and less playing time at home or with your friends.

There are some positive affects to this idea already mentioned, but we seem to be ignoring the strain on the kids. This would lengthen each of the 4 school days and instead encourage kids and teens(students) to get out of the learnign mode during a 3-day weekend. Students would have to wake up earlier and would get home later. During, the long weekend students (with nothing to do) would waste time, get into trouble, and get out of the learning mode. I am currently a highschool student and believe that our current 2-day weekend is definenetly long enough. If we continue shortenign the school week, in 5 years there will be a blog comment post on, "1 or 2-day school week." This plan could get extremely out of hand.

Dear Ms. claire: thank you so much for the information you have given us. Our research topic would be focusing first on the college students of Silliman University. Would it be possible if I can ask you some questions as teacher? As of now we are getting all the information that we need in this research and we are hoping that by the end of this research we could present our findings to the administration of the said University. Do you think the quality of education would not be sacrifice upon having only a 4 day class? You can reach me through my email address: cag2xshe@yahoo.com . Hope I can chat with you sometime for this particular topic. All the information you could give us would be of great help to this research... Thank you so much.

Dear Shiela: I am a teacher in the U.S. I have been thinking about a four day school week as a way to help low performing children. Instead of closing the school the fifth day, the lowest 10% of students (for example) would be required to attend school that fifth day. This fifth day would be used to work with these children in small groups and to focus on gaps in learning and intensive skill practice. The rest of the space within the school could be used for enrichment for students whose parents choose to send them to school that day-- for a fee, of course. School would be extended across the calendar. For example, if the year was 182 school days, the "missing" Fridays would all be added up and tacked on as additional weeks in the year. That might only leave three weeks of vacation in a chunk of time over summer. But, again, the child care fees would be used to support the additional expense of keeping the buildings open and staffed. Parents would like it because there would be consistency to their child's school and childcare patterns. There would be less "summer" need for full time day care. Learning would not decline over the summer since school would be close to year around. And full time staff could be staggered or take three-day weekends-- a good way to avoid teacher burn out. Anyhow, those are my ideas and I thought it would be interesting to see what your group was considering. Please keep in touch if you get a chance. (wiseclaire@sbcglobal.net)

'yes; i think it is a great ideal because more kids will come to scholl!!!

I think we should have four day week's because we will save energy and some Tree's

i think that we should give it a try and see what happends.........and if it does not work then we can go back to the five day school week..........

Hi, I am currently a college student of Silliman University, it is an American established school in the Philippines, and our group is doing a research on the possibility of having a 4-day class week. Would it be possible to get a copy of your research paper? This would be a great help to our research... If I could get a copy please do email me.... I find this research topic a challenge since if ever this is possible, our school would be the first to implement a 4-day class week in the Philippines... Thank you very much...

Hi, I was wondering if its possible to get a copy of your report on the 4 day school week?

Our school Superintendent is considering switching from a 4 day week to a 5 day week. Our teachers and parents feel that the students are getting a better education during the 4 day week. Unfortunately, nobody on either side, has found much written evidence on how it affects learning.

I am very interested in reading your paper, and also finding other sources of information.

Thanks!

Nancy