[eastbay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cyberbub', 'H')mm, this is very interesting. Recently I have literally come up with the idea of a 4-day school week completely independently, typed it into Google and suddenly found that I am not alone!!

I can't understand the issue about day-care for kids on the 5th day. Parents who currently work 8 hours, 5 days a week, have to provide child care between 3pm and 5pm or 5.30pm, don't they? All that would happen is that instead of paying for 2 hours of childcare per day for 5 days per week, they might have to pay 10 hours for 1 day per week. Surely there is no difference?

I see the 4-day school week being an excellent idea, not only for the environmental reasons stated elsewhere on this forum (transport/heating bills), but also:

(a) it would be very popular with both kids and teachers - who wouldn't prefer a 3-day weekend? Some experts think that kids spend too much time in formal education, especially at the younger ages.
(b) many parents might find it much more convenient to have an 8pm to 5pm 4-day school week; most jobs are (still) run on that schedule, and parents who do want to spend some time with their kids during the week currently have great difficulty trying to find jobs that allow working 8:30am to 3pm; they do exist but are rare (apart from jobs in schools of course!). Many parents might find it easier to convince an employer to work 80% time 4 days a week on a normal schedule, than 5 days a week on a 6-hour schedule.
(c) it would cut down hugely on the amount of congestion and pollution on the roads - businesses could schedule their weekly deliveries to peak on a Friday, when they knew that the roads would be much quieter. Here in the UK, up to 25% of peak hour traffic is schools-related, that would disappear on Fridays. There would probably be less accidents and fatalities involving children as well, due to travel to school and the traffic chaos outside school gates etc.

Let me know whether I have got the points above wrong!

[BlueGhostNo2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Micki', ' ')18 posts and already ticked off. Wow.