Mr. Teacher

Those Short Weeks are Killer

by John Pearson

This week is a three-day school week. Monday was a holiday – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – and Tuesday was a teacher work day, since the first semester ended last Friday. I am certainly among the crowd that hears three-day work week and immediately whoops for joy. Four-day weekend! WOOHOO!!!

However, though the length of the weekend is definitely nice, the school weeks are often among the most intense and dreaded. You see, we still have to fit a regulation educational week in, but we have less than a regulation week to do it.

For some reason, those short weeks seem to drag on and on, much like a bad Saturday Night Live skit.

For the past year or two, nearby districts have toyed around with the idea of a standard four-day school week. The length of those school days would be longer, to account for the absence of Friday school. The idea behind this is to save the district money. Two fewer bus routes would be necessary, the schools could go one more day without using as much electricity, food, and water, and perhaps there were other financial benefits as well.

When I first heard that, my suggestion was to take it a step further and do a total Jack Bauer. I proposed a ONE-day school week, where students arrive at noon on Monday and go straight through to noon on Tuesday. Twenty-four hours of continuous, unadulterated instructional time, and then SIX DAYS OFF!!!

The cost savings to the school district would be tremendous. Buses would only be needed twice a week, instead of ten times. Food costs would plummet, as only one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner would be required per week (though I would think about adding a midnight snack). Air-conditioning costs would be cut, electricity bills would be slashed, water bills would be mutilated and spindled.