Closing 2025, “the weekend” as a literal term for Saturday and Sunday is practically obsolete. What started about seven years ago as a global trend is quickly becoming common policy, as a four-day work and school week spreads across the nation.
The pandemic forced everything to rename and restructure. Coming out of COVID, employment was seen differently; some people were grateful to be able to go back to work while others latched on to a “gig” mentality, and some used their skills to start their own business.
In the UK a shortened work week has been common for more than a year with some companies offering a four-day week as a choice. To select, employees have to take a 20% salary cut, but reading social media posts, they seem to be OK with it. And many companies are doing “100-80-100” across the board, meaning four days at the previous full salary.
A work week change is not something the general population is aware of until a relatively sudden policy shift, like what’s happening now. In the early 20th century a 40-hour week was considered extremely progressive for a society used to only Sundays off. Henry Ford, a prime example, proved a big company could do it while increasing profits, and the manufacturing and corporate world followed.
The concept of leisure structured by a work schedule started in the Industrial Revolution. Early on, leisure was tainted with terms like “conspicuous consumption” but now has become softened into an aspiration of “work/life balance” for everyone. For employers and salaried employees, including public schools, the line between work and leisure is that negotiable area.
I’m an old-fashioned retiree, out of the loop, but when I first saw the four-day plan it sounded crazy. I have to admit I still fail to entirely grasp what’s driving it both nationally and statewide, but for companies and schools the stated rationale is what everybody agrees on: “We must hire and retain our best teachers/employees” and “We need to pare down expenses.”
Limited research on a cell phone is all I know and I’m certain everyone else knows more than I do. Under new plans, teacher salaries remain untouched (no one would support teacher pay reductions), and it’s unclear how much actual savings will actually come out of the new schedule. Projections based on reduced transportation and utilities costs show only 1-3% of budget paring.
Questions about overtime, curriculum content covered, attention spans, child care and a multitude of other issues within current research will be answered in time as the program unfolds.
So that leaves an expectation and a fear. The expectation: good teachers, maybe from cities who haven’t adopted the shorter week, will flock to the schools with a four-day schedule. The fear: that current staff may be lost if their district stays at five days.
Currently more than 200 Texas ISDs, the majority rural and semi-rural, have adopted a four-day week plan in addition to many governmental offices and businesses. To accommodate the Texas law requiring schools to do 75,600 minutes of academic time, extra minutes are attached to each class or each day depending on the school’s individual plan.
And “Friday Night Football?” It seems each district can do it their own way, usually including at least a partial Friday for coaches and athletes, while regular teachers come in on half or full “extra days,” listed as planning days.
Nationally, a mountain of positive publicity on the new calendar exists, quoted comments with a lot of enthusiasm and expectations for the future. “Parents and students and teachers love it,” “We believe students will improve scores on everything,” “It’ll probably cut down on absences,” and of course, “Students will have more time to get involved with extracurriculars and athletics.” So what’s not to love?
Nothing not to love yet. But statistical results may be complicated. For the small subset of Texas schools who have implemented four days for a year or more, actual performance results in reading and math are mixed. Notably, I couldn’t find one yet where student testing showed improvement in their numbers. But it’s early in the game.
Informed publicity right now is pushing the four-day, 32-hour work/school week as the best, the only humane calendar schedule. And on the very fringes, there’s an occasional mention of three days in the future (surely not, but who knows?).
But I do know one thing about our community: we have outstanding administrators, teachers and volunteers dedicated to the highest outcomes for students. If the new plan can work for the best, they will make it work.
Source: Freepik.com