44%. That is the portion of Milton’s fall semester that will use the new four-day schedule. Prepare yourself for seven four-day weeks this semester, compared to just five Blue and four Orange Weeks. Since this schedule seems here to stay, we should work on improving it.
Seeking to streamline our weeks and create a predictable rhythm, the administration currently plans to move ahead with this four-day schedule for the remainder of the fall semester. However, as a sophomore balancing five core classes, a half-course, and JV soccer, I have felt firsthand how exhausting this new approach is.
I am not alone in this frustration. As Nini Yu ’29 reported in The Milton Paper on October 2: “90% of 246 students who filled out a form on the new schedule rated their enjoyment [of their short week] a one or a two out of five, while 56% of twenty-three teachers who filled out the survey rated their enjoyment a one or a two.” Her data indicates that the accelerated schedule can make the short week feel like a chore, possibly leading to poor engagement from students and teachers.
If we want a healthy academic environment at Milton, we need to find better alternatives that address both student and faculty needs.
According to Academic Dean Sarah Jacobs’ speech at the Upper School Meeting on September 28, 2026, the previous approach to special schedules lacked consistency and “created a lot of chaos” and “confusion.” In response, a faculty committee worked last spring to design a schedule that prioritized predictability and replicability, leading to this new four-day model.
However, addressing the previous lack of routine does not mean we should cram five days of work into four days. Rather, we should have four productive days with an appropriate workload. Using my own schedule as an example, the root of our potential burnout becomes obvious. In a five-day “Orange Week,” my courses are spread out, so I have free periods that give me time to do homework, meet with teachers, visit the Skills Center, or just catch my breath. On the other hand, during a four-day-week Thursday, I have to power through all five of my core academic classes without sufficient time for me to fully reflect on and absorb the new material.
Having more classes in a day also naturally means more homework each night. During a regular Orange Week, I had, on average, 3.5 subjects of homework each night, while during a four-day week, I had 4.25 subjects of homework each night.
In addition to more work time each day, students had to choose between clubs and sports. As a school that prides itself on how many people are involved in so many things, placing club blocks at the end of the day—at the same time that most sports teams start their practice—undermines this commitment to allowing students to participate in their interests.
The physical and mental toll of this model is undeniable. To her credit, Jacobs has openly acknowledged the immediately obvious flaws in this new system and validated student complaints that “homework was a lot” because we are now taking “more classes during the day.” Furthermore, she admitted that the lunch periods “did not flow well” as they led to long lines in Forbes. While she also said the administration is looking at data to stagger lunches, tweaking lunchtimes does not solve the significant issue of an extra busy week’s overload.
Perhaps the administration has concluded that having more classes each day is actually better for students’ learning. If so, we should all prepare to abandon the Blue and Orange schedules. However, the stated goals of the four-day week—to improve consistency and prevent imbalance class number between sections—seem totally different, with the added workload as an unfortunate byproduct we need to address.
What are the better alternatives? I believe we should proportionally reduce the number of course sessions rather than cram all of them into fewer days. For example, my four-day schedule would still have each course meet an equal number of times (i.e., twice), and it would restore critical co-curricular community time like club blocks.
An alternate approach to limit academic strain would be homework caps. However, how can students and administration actually enforce these restrictions without effectively putting students in the uncomfortable position of having to rat out their noncomplying teachers? While homework caps could theoretically also reduce student workload, they would lack effective enforcement across different departments and teachers.
Jacobs said that the administration seeks our partnership and that if this new routine does not work in the long run, the administration will “go a different direction next time around.” As she requested, we students must take her up on this offer and provide feedback. Let us speak up for a schedule that values student well-being and academic success.