Weekends: Longer or Shorter?
By Rachel Randgaard
One
subject related to school that gets a lot of controversy would be,
should we have longer weekends and longer school days? Or should we keep
things the way that they are? I’m not sure as to where you stand on
this topic, so I’ll just try to shed some light on my view, and you can
decide if my argument is agreeable from your standpoint.
I
don’t know about you, but I feel as though there are not enough days in
the weekend. Weekends seem to be the only days that I can even remotely
begin to catch up on chores, sleep, homework, and other aspects of my
busy teenage life. I recently have been trying to land a job, only
adding to the things that are priorities and will have to push other
things off until a later time... most of the time “later” never even
comes.
From
a personal standpoint, and maybe you could relate to me, this last
quarter has been very stressful. Not because of an increase in homework,
but because of a lack of sleep. Studies show that well-rested people do
better in daily activities; mentally and physically. Well-rested people
tend to have lower blood pressure and stress levels, as well. Another
thing would be the fact that I personally can hardly find time to spend
time with my family, and after asking around I found this to be a very
common problem for others as well. Then, after doing some research, I
also discovered that scientists have proven that kids and teenagers that
spend time with their parents do better in school. Along that line,
polls were taken and most of the time the result was the same-- kids
don’t talk with their parents about homework and other priorities
because they are so overwhelmed by not being able to catch up on things.
Then, parents are shocked when they discover that their child failed a
class. It’s possible that with a longer weekend, time spent with parents
would make kids more comfortable talking to their parents about such
things. Of course in this last argument, there are a lot of other
variables to consider as well, the main idea stays the same though. With
this being said, I could just say, “Case closed, end of story.” But I
won’t; there are plenty of other factors to consider in this matter.
On
the pro-weekend side, students would be able to get more sleep, have
more time to get things done, and have less stress. On the other side of
the spectrum you have the anti-longer weekends side, who are rightfully
declaring that having a longer weekend has it’s cons as well. For one,
If you have a longer school day, that means less time at night to get
homework done for the next day. If you’re in sports or any other kind of
after school activity, you know what I’m talking about. Also, the kids
that have after-school activities would have later practices, only
adding to already present stress. Some people, who just can’t bear to
sit down for any longer than required, wouldn’t be able to stand having
to be in school for an extra one or two hours. Others still have
different reasons.
Based
on my personal experience I think that longer weekends would benefit
most people. The facts all back up my opinion, the ideal situation would
be for us to have shorter school weeks. Maybe you feel differently on
the matter, but one thing is for certain-- students need a break. Think
about it, adults seem to demand more of us students than we have the
capacity to give. We’re expected to be adults, treated like children,
and we’re stuck in the middle trying to catch up and find a happy
balance between the two; a longer weekend would allow for more work and play.
It seems like the closer we get to the end of the year, the more people
begin to stress out about things. Kids begin to lose sleep over
worrying about catching up on homework, or passing that test that they
didn’t have time to study for. Something needs to change. Again, look at
the facts, the decision is yours.
