Though the five-day work week is a schedule that has been recognized and used for the past two centuries from factories to office jobs and activities to schooling, I believe Lakeside should change their work week so that Wednesday is a half-day. The established schedule is already starting to change. For example, the Bellevue School District, where I attended middle school, has Wednesday as a half-day. Along with the BSD, other school districts and companies are starting to change their schedules as well because they are beginning to doubt the principles that the original five-day work week was built on. Schools and businesses’ question: Is simplicity and maximizing work time really more important than furthering the efficiency of work and rest days?
Lakeside should make Wednesday a half-day in order to increase the efficiency of work for students, which is mostly determined by how focused one is. Currently, this focus starts off strong but decreases over time, only being reset with consistent breaks. According to the University of North Carolina, “Taking regular breaks can actually help you be more productive than working without stopping.” Throughout the week, one’s productivity will constantly decline as their focus declines, and the work week will not be used to its full potential. However with Wednesday as a half-day, things are very different. On Monday, after the weekend, a student’s focus is at its full potential. On Tuesday, it will have decreased a bit. With the added half-day on Wednesday, students will reset their focus and be more productive on Thursday and Friday. The schedule will provide a regular break and allow for a reset in students’ focus, and thus for more efficiency in our work.
Though such a drastic schedule change may never happen at Lakeside, the methodology behind it of spreading out your breaks can be done anywhere, anytime.
Some may believe that having a half-day on Wednesday would reduce instructional time while not providing a long enough break from work. At Lakeside, students spend around 20 hours per week in class, excluding clubs, assembly, and advisory. If Wednesday is made a half-day, the instructional time would decrease to only 17 hours per week. It may be true that this decreased class time could impact productivity and suppress learning. Furthermore, if school on Wednesday was cut in half, it would only provide 3 extra hours of break. This may not be enough for students to completely reset themselves and is an inefficient way of arranging break time.
However, making Wednesday a half-day sets an important precedent for Lakeside, marking a shift from quantity of instructional time to quality. For example, according to CNBC, spreading breaks “can stimulate creativity, help you concentrate better, and make the time you spend … more efficient.” Though there is a 15% reduction in instructional time, the quality of work for the rest of the week would compensate for it, as students would face less burnout. Plus, by decreasing instructional time, teachers would be encouraged to be more efficient in their teaching methods and omit any repetitive work. Moreover, spreading out breaks can actually increase their impact. According to the KnightTimes, “Many people are so drained from the past week that they need to use Saturday as a recovery day, leaving only Sunday for true rest and relaxation.” Because of the lack of energy resets in the five-day work week, many people are so tired that Saturday is wasted as a day to recover. So, by making Wednesday a half-day, it would ease the transition between work and off days, and make days off, like the half-day on Wednesday, more enjoyable. Plus, having the extra time on Wednesday to participate in fun extracurriculars would be a welcomed break for hardworking students. So, making Wednesday a half-day will allow for students to use instructional time more efficiently as well as using breaks more efficiently too.
Though there is a 15% reduction in instructional time, the quality of work for the rest of the week would compensate for it.
Though such a drastic schedule change may never happen at Lakeside, the methodology behind it of spreading out your breaks can be done anywhere, anytime. For example, during the summer, or whenever you have the freedom to structure your own life, you could work on a project during the week, then take a break on Wednesday. This doesn’t even have to work on the timeframe of a week. If you are studying for a test or completing an assignment, you could work for one hour, then take a 10 minute break. But from making work more productive to making days off more enjoyable, the schedule change of making Wednesday a half-day has been shown to work, and Lakeside should implement it.
