Persuasive essay

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.