A proposal by “The Massachusetts Smart Work Week Pilot” is pushing a four-day work week in the state. This would change the work week for employees and would impact students’ school schedules all over Massachusetts.
Most students have encountered a struggle with their mental health, and students are arguing that a five-day school schedule is to blame. Triton Junior Dan Lannan argues that “five days is just too much for students’ mental health.” Kids’ focus in the classroom declines as they struggle with their mental health, and a four-day school schedule could help solve this issue,” said Lannan.
However, some students and teachers think otherwise, even though a four-day school week looks pretty on paper it adds longer school days. We asked both teachers and students their opinions on the long school days.
Teachers argued that this change in the schedule would end up making students more lazy. Math teacher Joseph Galante argues “Poorly, I think it would make the students lazier than they already are.”
When asked about his opinion on what he thinks a 4-day school week would do to Triton. Students agreed as well. When Triton Junior, Kaiden Fowler was asked if he thought this schedule would make kids more lazy he answered “Yeah 100 percent.”
This schedule change most likely wouldn’t work in Massachusetts without serious changes to the school day, with the requirement of 45 weeks and 990 hours a year. If we had four-day weeks and still only went to school from 7:42 to 2:13 while meeting those requirements, students in Massachusetts would have a four-week summer break which is something no one wants.
There are pros and cons to this possible drastic change in our schedule, but schools all over the nation are taking the chance, according to an article “Bill to create 4-day work week program in Massachusetts set for hearing” from CBS News, by Neal Riley, “almost 900 districts returned for the fall by adopting 4-day school weeks.” So far the outcome has been good, as schools are already reporting relief in students’ stress, along with increased focus in the classroom. These positive outcomes make school districts wonder if their school could use a schedule change and many students are wondering the same thing.
The four-day work week bill in Massachusetts was announced to the Labor and Workforce Development Committee in November addressing the possibility of shortening the work week for businesses across Massachusetts. Research conducted has shown that employees have better performances when working fewer hours and getting rid of burnout by the end of the week. State Rep. Josh Cutler stated, “There has not been a meaningful reduction in working hours since the 40-hour workweek became the standard 84 years ago.” These 40-hour workweeks were implemented for factory workers and labor jobs back during the rise of industrial America. This strict industrial work needs a change, Cutler said.
This proposal of a two-year pilot program called “The Massachusetts Smart Work Week Pilot” implements a plan where workers will get reduced hours and have no reduction to their general pay. Employees will be able to leave the program and go back to normal hours if wanted at any time. At the end of the pilot, employees and businesses will give economic reports and reviews about how they felt regarding the new schedule change.
The talk of four-day school and work weeks will continue and the people of Massachusetts will figure out soon if their schedules will be changing.
