Building in breaks: the benefits of a three-day weekend
Building in breaks: the benefits of a three-day weekend
Editorial: As featured in volume 111, issue 8 of The Collegian.
As we enter week five of the semester, I keep telling myself that I just need to make it to Wednesday and the rest of the week will fly by, or that Spring Break is approaching soon. I’m always looking forward to the next time I’m going to get a break from school or even a day off from classes. Weekends are short, with Saturdays filled with sporting events and Sundays becoming a catch-up day to prepare for the week ahead.
The weekend is just not long enough. Recently, I’ve been seeing Instagram posts about how there should be a day between Saturday and Sunday to provide students a day off from weekend festivities or to have another day dedicated to much-needed recovery and rest. This idea had me thinking about what an extra day added to our weekend — whether it be Monday or Friday — would look like.
In the case of an elongated weekend, extracurricular activities would obviously continue throughout. That said, what difference would it make if our additional day off was Monday, versus Friday? I don’t know about anyone else, but when we had a couple of Mondays off at the beginning of the semester, I felt more motivated to be productive with my studies, inside and outside of the classroom. I knew that I only had four days of classes and that the long-dreaded Monday was out of the way. It gave me an extra day to recharge and rest before entering the first five-day week.
Everyone knows that a majority of classes on campus factor attendance into grades. With an initiated three-day weekend, it is possible that professors could see noticeable increases in attendance. A three-day weekend provides students with the opportunity and availability to attend appointments without having to skip classes. This also applies to students who want to go home for the weekend, allowing them more family time. Three-day weekends could increase student focus, energy, and overall teamwork and dedication.
Recently, students have been advocating for Bethel to put mental health first, and in many ways they have. However, implementing a three-day weekend would be an additional measure to this end. With the increasing number of student-athletes attending Bethel, having an extra day off would be beneficial for the busy schedules that athletes endure. The amount of injuries and struggles with mental health that athletes deal with is hard to balance with daily classes and schedules that demand activity in individual sports, six or seven days a week.
One possible method of navigating this new course schedule would look like increasing the length of class periods in order to offset the effects of removing a day from the week. In reality, this switch would create many schedule conflicts to be considered between students, faculty, and staff. The good news is, many colleges and universities have adopted and adapted to this new schedule of a three-day weekend and their methods could be looked to for guidance.
Though this change may not be likely for our future, it is still nice to consider. Until the day comes, I will continue to look forward to my next day off.