After the pandemic, some businesses and schools started doing four-day work weeks. Various studies show that four-day work weeks can be good or bad. But this subject involves a lot of opinions and how things would be different if we did have a four-day week. 

Several states across the U.S. already follow a four-day week schedule. The studies from those show that many benefits range from heightened productivity; more engagement from students; better attendance, and just overall great results. 

However, there are some cons to having a four-day school week. Mr. O’Hallorran had stated one of the many cons; That some school districts near WMS had tried the four-day week but unfortunately discontinued it because students ended up losing too much instructional time. 

Another con similar to what O’Halloran had stated is that teachers feel like they don’t have enough time to cram their lessons into the four-day schedule, and while having the 3 extra days to prepare for those lessons combats that problem, it’s still a very important issue. 

Mr. O’Halloran is the Vice Principal of WMS. One of the things that he talked about was how he would love to have a four-day school week, but it wouldn’t work out for the student’s education. Our school schedule would have to have an additional block.

 Mr. O’Halloran mentioned that this schedule wouldn’t work out for our school because of the students and how it would affect how they learn. He also stated that with the 4-day work week with other schools, “Productivity is up, people are happier, there’s less burnout, and there are a lot of big positives with companies that did try it out and are sticking with it”. 

Mr. Murphy, a seventh and eighth-grade ELA teacher, and also the volleyball coach said, “At this point in the year nothing would change.” However, he said he was interested to see how it would go if it began in September.

Ms.Dudley is a very active teacher, she works out in the gym and sometimes plays different types of sports. For example, basketball and other activities in the gym. She’s a very energetic person. 

Her opinions about the four-day workweek are similar to Mr.O’Hallorans, but one difference is that she thinks it would be a good idea to try out this new schedule next year and if it doesn’t work out then we could just go back to the same schedule.

But she doesn’t want to add the extra hour to a four-day workweek because she would still want to go to the gym and lesson plans are things that she does daily. “Education is the foundation of everybody’s life,” said Ms. Dudley. We like this statement because she is right, education is everything.  Without it, we would probably not know anything. 

Mrs. Rackett has a different opinion, she doesn’t think that this four-day workweek would be a good thing. Rackett thinks that if we were to ever think about switching to a four-day work schedule we would have to make sure we have the right resources to be able to fit a five-day week into a 4 day week. 

She not only thinks about herself, she also thinks about students that do after-school activities. Racket was saying that she would want it to be every other week instead of every week. She doesn’t think that the Monday we have off should be optional because it’s going to affect the salaries of the teachers

In conclusion, the pros and cons vary for the four-day workweek. What do you think would you enjoy having a four-day workweek?