Up until about 100 years ago, most people worked 6-day workweeks. They worked and all week and even though, they had Sundays off they spent much of that time in Church, at least in most of America that is. In May 19, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a law that guaranteed a stable wage and an eight-hour workday —but only for government workers. Grant's decision encouraged private-sector workers to push for the same rights. Some privates businesses did do that like in 1926 when Henry ford began implementing a 5-day workweek in his car business and many businesses soon followed suite. Henry was not perfect but his progressive new 40-hour workweek and higher pay was for private business was genius. His logic was if people now had time and money they would need a car, and they did and ford's car sales were excellent. Many labor unions wanted a limit of 40 hours a week for year’s. Jewish people also wanted their day of worship off. It took many years but on October 24, 1940, the eight-hour day and 40-hour workweek became standard practice in a range of industries.

                All this is great but recently people have been discussing a 4-day work week. Forbes magazine recently put out an article about time wasted at work, a lot of this being in office like spaces:

    31% waste roughly 30 minutes daily

    31% waste roughly 1 hour daily

    16% waste roughly 2 hours daily

    6% waste roughly 3 hours daily

    2% waste roughly 4 hours daily

    2% waste 5 or more hours daily

That means almost 4% of people waste half of the workday. Giving an extra day could potentially give more quality work in less time. Many workers become burnt out after a certain period but there are many companies that already do this, and it has increased productivity and quality of work. This is a great idea but it is a problem when applied to schooling. Longer days could lead to more time to forget in between I would propose the opposite and make shorter days and shorter vacation. Never the less    we can learn from the past and revolutionize workdays. Just because 5-day workweeks are normal does not mean it should not be changed, it will boost morale, productivity and as a bonus, less maintenance like heating and cooling needed for the building.