4 Day Week Schedule: Is Cramming 21 Classes in 4 Days the Best Way to Manage a Short Week
By Lauren Laskowsky ’29 and Jay O Park ’30
When the students of St. Mark's checked their calendars, many were shocked by the upcoming second week of school. In big and bold letters, a daunting 6-class Monday sat on their laptop screens, the beginning of a four-day week packed with 21 classes. This led students to wonder, “Why on Earth do we need to meet with our teachers 3 times in 4 days?”
September 7th, and the start of the second week of school, immediately plugged kids into the intensity of the shortened schedule. Six classes meant students had to move nonstop, and the additional homework was unending. Justin Yang, a 4th former, says, “I had almost four hours of homework every day.” For some, the schedule was so packed that there was barely enough time to eat lunch before moving on to the next commitment. The shortened lunch time, along with the incredibly long line to wait for your food, turned what normally would be one of the few breaks in the academic day into something students had to rush through.
The next day was like Monday all over again: six classes, back to back with what felt like no breathing room. The homework load showed no mercy, and neither did our sleep schedules. Ms. Plimpton, English department head and teacher, had shared some of her thoughts with us, and she said, “To launch the year with two back-to-back irregular weeks felt super disorienting. The four-day week drained me of all life force. I blame my cold on the whiplash!” She described the four-day week as draining and almost sucking the life out of her. We can attest that everyone else felt the same exact way, Ms. Plimpton.
By September 9th, it’s hump day. Everyone was trying to make it through the week on very little sleep, along with athletic games stacked on top of the heavy workload. A normal Wednesday schedule consists of three one-hour and five-minute classes; now it has four 55-minute classes. The four-day week schedule was like jumping on a treadmill moving 200 miles per hour, with no training at all. Your brain is moving faster than you physically can. Is meeting your teachers three separate times in four days really worth the sleepless nights and shoving two pieces of pizza in your mouth in under 5 minutes because you don’t have time to sit down? We think not.
On Thursday, it was the final stretch. The feeling that the hellish schedule is finally coming to an end. But no! A new activity has been implemented for Friday. Form day! When you finally think you’ll get some reprieve, you have to do form bonding with your grade for the entire next day. Come on, wouldn’t you be excited to make cardboard chariots with your classmates at 8 A.M. right after what it felt like being thrown in the wringer? It seemed to never end. Emily Tian ‘29 said, “I’m taking 7 classes this semester, and I can’t seem to take a break. I am going to sleep at the wee hours of the morning, and it’s only the second week of school.” She seemed like she’s going through it, and that was just a taste of it.
What does the Student Life Office have to say? The student body monitors are meeting with the Student Life Office on September 30th to explain themselves and what they can do. Will the monitors make a change? Will the students' voices be heard?