Were Friday Online Days Better for Students?

It’s safe to say that most of us remember the changes made to our school lives last year due to the crazy world-wide pandemic. One specific change was switching every Friday to an online home work day. However, this year the schedule has once again changed back to its original: late starts on Tuesdays, and school on Fridays. But which do students prefer?

Audrey Wilson gave her own insight on the matter. “I loved it so much because it gave me time to do homework,” she says. She continues saying she “felt more organized,” because she had that day to reset and decide on her game plan.

Another student, Marissa Jeppeson, also gave her opinion, which was a bit mixed. “I like the late starts, but the Friday off helped to do the homework I couldn’t do. It also helps when I’m exhausted from having my seizures to just have a day where I won’t have to miss a day from school.”

AP Language and Composition teacher, Denise Ferguson, said the online day helped her students keep up and practice even more for their AP tests. “Our AP results were exactly the same as 2019 when were were in class every Friday,” she said. “That was most surprising to me and not what I expected.”

Ferguson can see both sides of the issue and many high school students benefited from the online work day; however, there were many who didn’t use it as it was intended. She’s concerned that expectations for online course work can’t be met. “Teachers can’t continue to manage Canvas and everything required in the classroom,” she added. “They will become fatigued and burned out because they can’t keep up with that expectation.”

School off on Fridays last year was so beneficial to students last year in the chaos of the world, but maybe it would still be beneficial to students as we’re back in the “normal”? It was helpful towards students mental and physical health. Of course, maybe school wouldn’t be exactly “off” but an at home workday. It was an opportunity for students to reorganize and review what they learned in that week.

I think most everyone would agree that Fridays off was most beneficial last year in the success for students, and perhaps it should be continued.