Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.
To the editor:
Teenagers need time. My 8th grade Wellesley Middle School Civics group thinks that we should have a four-day school week. Students can have a lot of stress and so they need a three-day weekend. We would have extra time to catch up on homework, sports and most importantly, to spend time with friends and family.
Evidence shows that students can complete 100% of work in 80% of time. A four-day school week can also help people with mental health issues, which is very needed because one in every five people in middle school and one in four people in high school have mental health issues. If kids learn this way, they will be less stressed, get better grades and have a higher morale. This would lead to better learning and better grades to set us up for success.
In order to make this happen, we also need parents to have a four-day work week. Studies show that four-day work weeks work for kids and adults. Therefore you should go support Bernie Sanders’ bill in the Senate for a four-day work week.
Currently the state law is to have 180 days of school a year in Massachusetts, but our goal is to change it to an amount of hours per school year, so we can have a four-day school week. This will work by having eight hours and ten mins per day instead of an average of six and a half hours or seven. We will have 144 days of school a year but still the same amount of hours of learning with this change.
Overall this would help everyone: it would reduce stress, increase time to catch up on sleep, spend time with friends and family and give everyone more time for hobbies outside of school.
Andrew Barbary
Wellesley Middle School student
