Weblogic

What an awesome idea! Nowadays kids are involved in so many activities, sports, etc., I think it gives everyone a little more breathing room to get things done. Also, it would give us all more time to spend as a family. The possibilities of all those three day weekends! I know, I am a mother of five who are all involved in sports,theater,chorus,academics,church activities and more.

It's the kind of idea that can only be hatched by a myopic group of pinheads. It doesn't take into account whether students will learn better or how it will mess up the schedule of parents.

I've seen pictures of horses wearing blinders to keep them focused on one task. They are not for policymakers.

I disagree with a 4 day school week. Even if they have the same classroom time you are trying to cram to much information into a shorter time period. Also small children do not have long attention spans for a longer school day. Plus it would give them less time to do their homework for the night. Not to mention most parents would need to find daycare or trust them to be home by themself while the parents work five days a week.

I think it is appalling. The federal government needs to step up and FUND our schools. They can and should take a little from our gluttonous military budget and invest in our children. A longer school day is an unfathomable idea.

Unless you are a stay at home mom, a four day school week would be a nightmare. Also, a child's attention is very short and,unless the school year were to be extended, a long school day four day week would short change the children. They would be in school for a longer period during the day but would retain less of what was presented. It is difficult for me to believe that educators would be in agreement with such a plan.

I think the 4 day school week, overall, is wonderful. Personally, I think the children will fare better and the teachers. I realize this poses a challenge for working parents. Maybe a four day work week is in order, too.

It is good for energy and money savings for the schools but what about the parents that can not be off work the same days as their children. It will add expense of child care to the parents. The entire economic system would have to go 4 day weeks and the stores etc would also have to close on the same 3 days to keep kids from being left at home alone by working parents. Not feasible. Things used to close on sunday and everyone survived. We need to go back to the basics in this country.

The children of today have the attention span of a small fly. Only 4 days per week for school is more than they and their working mothers can stand.

I think that this would be a great ideal because after all we will be doing what will be best for environment in turn of saving fuel for future.

I think that it would wreak havoc on working parents' world unless two things happened. First, anyone who has ever observed home schooling sees that it couldn't take 20 hours to teach the curriculum, much less the 35 that they're spending in the classrooms now - much wasted time. Also, as companies begin to realize that telecommuting, job sharing, fewer, longer days make economic and personal sense, a four-day week could be a blessing, bringing the balance we all need.

My child Natalie is homeschooled right now, She goes to Gateway School and she only goes one day a week, Her grades have highly improved since she has started going there, And they have tutors as well, For 70.00 a month she gets a tutor, her homework , and she also has a better outlook on life. Now for the 4 day a week school it sounds ok, But I do wonder about the working parents. If it does come to that maybe the non working parents can carpool for the working mothers and fathers . I work second shift and thank god I do . I have the time to do around natlies schedule and mine

I think kids today are either pushed too hard or not enough....depends on the family. I really think that this might be too stressful for a lot of children and their parents.I know that sports and other activities are good for children, but how about some down time to go along with all of that? So there is a 4 day school week but a year around school ??? I think most people would say that for small children this would be too much and that they would be too tired to achieve much. I think the world moves way too fast these days for everyone ......just my humble opinion

Having spent years in the education field and having four children of my own, I think this would be a wonderful idea! Trust me, these kids would be fine with a little more time added to their day and having the extra day on the weekend gives a nice rest. It gives more quality time for being a kid. Let's face it after a evening of homework and dinner there is little time left to relax and enjoy. I think moving to a four day school week gives our kids one extra day to be a kid while not taking anything away from the education they should receive. My family would love this!

Overall, I like the idea.

One could possibly do without daycare for the four longer days, leaving only one day a week in daycare. That could be tough for providers who are use to the higher cost for less time before & after care, though.

Also not being in school for that 5th day would limit before & after school activities (sports, tutoring, etc) to four days. Not a huge loss, but for high school level sports something that may be taken into consideration.

The five-day school week all too ofter falls into the pattern where, between daycare and dinner, all at home free time is spent on homework. Then weekends are spent chasing around family obligations. This extra day off -- with no school activities, would be a perfect chance for kids to really just hang out.

There has to be some consideration for the minds of these kids, rather than just looking at cost savings and the environment. I've noticed in most of these comments that the "against" opinions are not popular. But they are the ones who are correct (for the most part) in their assessments.
The reality is that children just do not have the ability to concentrate and actually retain what they learn during the day. I would not want my work day extended in order to not work on Friday; I get too tired. And so do children. And that third day off? Gives them too much time to forget what they learned during their four days on.
Think about the kids - not busing one day a week may save money and slightly improve the environment, but the kids would suffer greatly. Schools have already been known to "dumb down" and this would truly be a "dumb down" consecquence. Save money or save our children's minds? Seems like a no-brainer to me. And that's exactly how our kids will end up - no-brainers.

The problem with that is all of us single parents still have to find a setter for our children. And in my case most of my family and friends work full time too. So finding someone to watch our children is difficult and expensive if they have to go to a daycare facility. The kids im sure would love it. Who wouldnt! It would be nice if the work places went to four days also. Now that would be nice.

I am a teacher and I cannot believe true educators are willing to subject our children to longer days. They do not retain information as "efficiently" as most adults, and, just like adults, when they get too much information bombarding them, it just does not get through. And longer breaks between classroom time almost guarantees that a portion of what they "learned" will be forgotten. That is one of the major reasons some schools go year 'round - less time for kids to forget what they were taught.

I am appalled that we parents would agree to such craziness. What about the single parents who might be force to pay a weeks daycare because their child is only attending daycare for 1 day. We all know that is policy for most childcare facility.
When do we allow the government to treat our family this way. It's O.K. to misuse our tax money, steal, pay for prostitutes , spend billions on the war, jack-up the fuel prices and then say this is what the our kids get.
I am married , self-employed and is very flexible but I will not allow the government to put my family last.

Maybe it would open the eyes of our employers and encourage them to think more open mindedly about alternate ways of doing things. Since most of us have to have two incomes to survive, I am pleased to see some companies realizing the benefits of such flexibility. And I'm with a prior comment, let them stay in school a little longer during the day, extend the school year just a bit because at the end of the day, there really is little QUALITY time if you want your kids to do their homework well and get a good meal and have clean laundry and get a good night's sleep. That extra day added to the weekend would really let EVERYONE feel like they are getting a break - including our teachers. It wouldn't hurt our kids to stay at school a little longer each day.

We need to do something to insure that we have a future. Yes this will be a big change and as Americans we should not be such crybabies about how this will effect us. Not only will we cut down the green house effect that also effects our health and our childrens future. But we need to push for four day work weeks also. So what if it is a longer work day at least we can be home three days with our families and more relaxed. Since most of us can't afford vacations. Isn't that what really matters. And stop depending on the so called goverment, don't you see the goverment is the problem. Honestly when is the last time the goverment has truly stuck up for us and not their own needs. Look at the money they make that has been taken from us just so they can live in big houses while we eat hotdogs and they eat cocked meals that were made by their house maid. All so we can go down hill. For example our house hold income has gone fron $40,000 a year to $$90,000 a year and we have less bills, but yet we are worst off then we were 8 years ago thanks to our lovely goverment allowing taxes, food, gass, electiric to go up. So let the schools go to 4 days and you will see a change everywere and it may be good or bad but how will we know till we try. You can see others schools that have gone to 4 days and most are doing better.

I am 7th grader at ridgewood and I already have trouble paying attenion

Being a Seventh Grader at a middle school that runs from 7:45-2:10, I have a hard enough of a time trying to pay attention by the end of the day. When it gets down to the last hour or so, I'm just ready to get out of there. Some times, it's even throughout the whole day that I'm just ready to run away, screaming. I say that if we got to shorter school weeks and longer school days, then our grades will fall drastically in at least our last classes of the day, if not all of them. Having to wake up so early for school is hard but knowing that you've got a very long day ahead just makes it that much harder. Sure, it'll cut fuel costs, but if your kids aren't putting their full effort into their work and getting reasonable grades, why waste the money on even sending them to school? Everyone is thinking about all the money they will save, but few people are thinking about how it's going to effect the kids. And I see it's been mentioned before, but with that extra day off, who knows what us kids could do with a whole extra free day? wreak havoc around town? Spend some time on the streets? Sit on out butts at the computer? I know I'd rather be sitting at a desk, doing something productive, surrounded by my peaceful friends and the slight hum of people whispering.
Also, we have quite enough vacations and holidays that we don't need another day of learning nothing.
Back to the issue of money. Sure, fuel costs will be saved. But heating/cooling and electricity may not be. The lights will have to be kept on longer than before and the heat will be the same. If you divide the school year into hours instead of days, they're going to be the same thing. You're still going to have the same number of hours in school as you would with five day weeks, just within a four day week school year. And, the teachers are going to have to stay after school longer to get their lessons planned for the next day and things like that.
So, like I said. I don't think we should go along with the four day school week.

WE NEED LESS DAYS IN SCHOOL WE NEED REST

WE NEED REST

I THINK ITS NOT RIGHT THAT WE BE IN SCHOOL FOR 8 HOURS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT ONLY HAVE 4 5 HOURS OF SCHOOL THAT IS NOT RIGHT WE NEED LESS DAYS IN SCHOOL

hi! how r u hopefully good i want this to be 4 days of school but it can be 8 hours a day it will be good because we r going to have lunch and a recess two times so i think it will be fair "good luck"!!!

u r gay

I am a junior in high school with a little sister in 8th grade a little brother in 5th and a nephew in kindergarden. Our school converted to the four- day week or the year 2008- 2009. My family LOVES it. both my parents work and i dont have anyhing to do on fridays so me and a few friends started a baby sitting club and we didn't even get paid the first times we did it we had loads of kids from ranging ages from people who all worked. The school started a program that takes students with nothing to do to go babysit for the parents. The longer classes arent harder they give you chances to ask questions and get the answers. I am ALL for it. And for school thinking about it I would totally think about starting a program for students that have nothing to do to babsit. either for free or to get paid whatever the parents think is neccisarry.

school aint shit
get high all day
and dont go to school is what i do
so fuck this bullshit

this is truly a good idea. For the economy, ease transportation, and u don't use the same energy as we do w/ a 5 day week

i think we should go to a four-a-day school week bacause like they said the cost of fuel is higher and it would save schools more money that allready have money problems. also because i want school to be shorter

ppppoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooopppppppppppppppppp

Why switch to a four day school week its not even 1% of our budget here in M.V!!!!! so ur saying a lie!!!!!! Grrrrrrrr its not fair kids dont have enough time after school!!!!and not enough family time!!!!!!Also i agree with heather!!!

im tired of sitting down and not having fun !!!!!!we need more fun stufff who cares about costs

i think we should all take Lola's point of veiw, U rock lola

im taking a debate thing on this and i have to be both negitive and positive !!!!i feel very strongly about the negitive!!!!!i willl debate anybody who does not agreee!!!!!!!i will help u see my piont of view!!!!

why dont kids have a say in this i mean it is them who are going to be ther not the parents !!!!!!!!

My class is doing a debate against the four day school week.Lola, the other comment writer is sitting next 2 me! hi lola!!!
So yeah vote 4 me because we will be @ school til 5:430 each day...
IT WILL SUCK!!!

i love

im a 5th grader and i think i barely have enuogh time to do sports and do my homework!!!!! we deserve to choose!!!!!please look at my point of view wait no just mine also all the kids in the world we have a choice dont we!!!!!!parents dont know haw hard school is!!11Sweet ur wrong it will still be the same!!!!! ask heather!!!!!i will boycott for this!!!!i am very stongly about this even if im just a 5th grader at M.V

please where are the children going to go on the 5th day when parents work!!!!!1huh have u ever thought og that!!!!!

We are one of those 4 day school week, rural districts. My first grader starts school at 8:20 and ends at 4:10. This does not include bus time (which means 7:40-4:45). Kids are done "learning" after a certain number of hours per day. My kids get no down time during the week, they have no time for extra curricular, family or sleep!!! Its school, homework, dinner, reading and bed for 4 days a week...all crammed in to get it to fit. The weekend in theory would be a great "family bonding time", but it doesn't happen. It really turns into an extra Saturday, where kids have such a long period of down time all at once, they get into trouble. Its just all around a bad idea!

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;p

well,goodness this means that kids will have longer hours in school and most kids don't have an long attention span.this is going to sound crazy but couldn't you keep there hours the same but still cut 5 percent so kids aren't failing there grades beacuse of trying to cram all this information in!!!

YES! i agree with the less days a week but not the more hours a day !!!!! WHY DON'T THEY CUT THE HOURS ALSO ARE KEEP THEM THE SAME CHILDREN WILL STILL LEARN AND ALSO NOT HAVE TO CRAM AND I BELIVE WE SHOULD TRY THIS THEORY OUT AND THEN IF NEED BE RECONSIDER!!!

battle of ideas and opinions happened here!!!
enough for that! Let's go to the reality of being a mother, looking forward to producing responsible, intelligent, happy, and future leaders of the country.
If we will pursue the 4 day class, yes we will save a little money, but we will throw a lot for our child's future.
How do youy expext our children to cope with additional load for a day, load for test, home works, teacher's expectations and a lot more. What do we add to them? additional STRESS! Specially middle school student, we knew that Middle School Lessons
are a lot more harder. Please calling all educators and parents, lets help them unload stress and pressure, let's not add to it.

For students who have not been taught the proper Organizational Skills, Middle School Lessons are very hard, http://www.middleschoolguide.com/teachers.php
can help us cope from this "4 day class" pressure.
check it out!

i think it is an great but not that great idea
i think it is good but im not sure
but i would like to have a 3 day weekend >..<

school blows