Less Time at School

When I read the news on how many schools across the nation are curtailing the school week from five to four days a week, giving Friday off, I could not help but smile. The one person who will be happy with such a change would be my son. For that matter, all kids would be happy to get a four-day week in school rather than five days. But many parents and many people around the nation feel that children are left behind and are getting less education and are considered to be of lesser priority when it comes to budget cuts and job losses. The idea behind this four-day week is to cut down on budget gaps, cut down on job losses in the Schooling industry. By having a day off during the week, schools will save on power, heating/cooling, bus services, providing meals for the children, maintenance/cleaning for that one day.


Presently, schools in Fairfax County have half-day on Mondays. Instead of the current timings, if school days from Monday to Thursday are made longer, Fridays can be off. Technically, students will be missing half day of school which can be compensated by having an hour extra on the working days. With the latest technologies we have like Internet and Blackboard, which is used in schools, students can be given homework and materials that they can read and work on, on Fridays. I have seen this at work during the snow storm we had a month ago and when schools were closed for more than a week. My son did not miss any school work during those days when schools were closed. Taking this step and making it bigger to implement on Fridays would not be a bad idea.


Before you start pointing your fingers at me to say that schools and children’s education are considered a lesser priority in these difficult economic times, think about the situation and solution for a minute. Students are not losing anything in terms of the education that they receive and it is accounted for. What they will be missing is a meal and play time on Fridays. When we have a bigger situation of closing budget gaps and staving off layoffs in schooling system, I think we can all pull this individual load of dealing with Fridays off. Many might think that they would have to deal with day cares on the day off. Nowadays many employers allow the option of working from home or working extra hours on other weekdays and taking Fridays off. If the government is making it a rule to have Fridays off for schools, then they can certainly do something about working parents working their situation out with their employers. Most European countries have four day work week and have Fridays off (making it a 3-day weekend), so it is about time that we in the USA start looking at that option.