By Karen Neill
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In the past few years, schedule changes have been occurring. Traditionally, spring break was two weeks long, winter was three weeks, fall break was nonexistent and summer break lasted anywhere from two to three months. It has been a while since spring break was reduced to one week when fall break was introduced, and not many noticable changes have been made since, but this year’s winter break was unexpectedly increased back to three weeks, after five years of it being a two-week break. The debate up for discussion now is: Do we keep winter break three weeks long? And does this mean that summer break should now be shortened as a result?
As most students would most likely agree, school breaks are what we most look forward to throughout the school year. Teenagers continuously wake up before the sun to take tests and learn complicated concepts hour after hour. And as our only interruptions (recess and lunch) are getting shorter, it seems like each year our day gets longer, especially with the addition of a seventh period this year. Breaks are both students’ and teachers’ only way of completely reenergizing and relaxing, hopefully, without worries of schoolwork or meetings, and with winter break being the buffer between the two semesters, it should remain its new length of three weeks.
This is because, arguably, winter break is the most important. It’s the time people visit family and share dinners and watch holiday movies on TV. This is usually the break that flies by because of how busy people are and how excited they get from both giving and receiving gifts. By this time students have been in school for about 20 weeks and, if teachers insist on giving homework during a vacation, one extra week should be a given. If all seven teachers were to give homework before break, one week would barely be repayment for the amount of stress students would feel over finishing everything during the holidays.
When it comes to the question of how this new arrangement will affect other break times – it shouldn’t. This shouldn’t be a matter of “This is the amount of free time allotted to students, where do we place it,” it should be a matter of, “Our students might need more time off, how can we adjust to provide it.” And as selfish as that may sound, I think we deserve it. Summer break should not (but likely will in 2015) be shortened because winter break was lengthened. Students work hard, and should be rewarded with rest.
In contrast however, spring break being shorter than winter break by two weeks can be seen as more beneficial. By the end of third quarter, most of a student’s energy is likely depleted and they are prepared to get through their fourth and final quarter on pure fumes. One week off is just enough rest before pushing to be done with the last eight or nine weeks before summer vacation, when you won’t need to even think of school for at least a month or two.
Although some people might mistake teens’ constant desire for breaks and sleep as laziness, and may even believe that we have no real reasons to be tired and stressed, there are logical explanations as to why. Firstly, from the age of puberty to about the age 25, people’s brains are culling unused nerves, figuring out which we need and getting rid of those that we don’t, making sleepiness a default setting for young people. Secondly, on top of regular school days, teens have extracurricular activities, jobs, chores, homework, community clubs, social lives, etc. Teenagers are busy people, and there is a lot of pressure riding on them.
The problem is not that the hard work of students isn’t appreciated enough, it’s that the appreciation of hard work needs to be shown through action. And one of the best ways to do that would be to give us a longer winter break and keep the others the same.
