Week after week, day after day, six and a half hours spent mainly sitting at desks feels like a lifetime in the classroom. Just once a week, hours could be spent in better, more productive ways.
A half day on Wednesdays would give the students time to prepare for end-of-the-week exams, catch up on homework, or simply find joy in much-needed free time. Faculty can catch up on grading and find time to meet with students who need extra help or individual tutoring.
Whether it is the administration, teachers, staff or students, it’s common that throughout the week our work rate and attention span plummet. Students do not learn as much as they should and struggle to contain their excitement to leave for the weekend. Wednesday afternoons are the breaking point where students know that they still have two days left but are already tired from previous school days.
There are many problems with the school system that we have today, one being the outdated five-day week that has plagued schools for centuries. Our technology is improving, our society has developed, and yet Algonquin sees no change in its schedule except for the rotation of class blocks. It’s time to look outside the 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. schedule and acknowledge that oftentimes less can be more, especially when it comes to engagement, productivity and wellness.
According to The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the state regulations for hours spent in the classroom and school days per year are 990 hours and 180 school days. A full school day is quantified by attending school until at least 11 a.m., so ending structured learning time at 12:30 p.m. is entirely possible.
The 990 hours averages out to 5.5 hours of structured learning time per school day. With our usual schedule of six 55-minute classes, we are in the classroom for exactly 5.5 hours each day. This proposed schedule would push the end time for school to 3 p.m. instead of 2:30 p.m., making each class an hour, and making Wednesday’s dismissal time 12:30 p.m.
Overworked students are unhappy students. With this crucial break halfway through each week, students and faculty would be able to get better sleep and greater focus while in the classroom. The consistent half days could also provide other opportunities.
Honor societies could provide peer tutoring after the end of the half day to continue to boost academic performance but also give back to the community around them, in a manner that they cannot do now due to time constraints. Clubs could go on field trips without having their members miss any school or sports. Sports teams would have the ability to have team bonding activities to improve their camaraderie as a team.
Students would be able to break the endless daily routine of school, which is followed up with extracurriculars in addition to piles of homework.
Hundreds of stressed-out students being able to relax during the busy school week for just a couple of hours would greatly benefit the overall population of the school. Teachers would be able to teach more engaged students and students would be able to focus better while in the classroom.
Teachers would equally benefit from this change. Teachers could use this time to work on letters of recommendation, provide meaningful feedback to students, and collaborate with each other in ways they cannot during the school day. They could plan better lesson plans and spend more time giving students real in-depth feedback with this extra working time.
The administration needs to strongly consider a change to our 5-day schedule to maximize the faculty’s and students’ productivity. School is about learning and the best way to do that is to relieve stress from students on Wednesday afternoons and allow them to have the time they need to finish homework, study for tests and participate in extracurricular activities.
