By Kai Peterson
Spring Break is an essential need for students during a school year. Navigating through the hectic schedule that school hammers on to you is very draining for students still developing, so this break allows students to take the greatly needed break to rejuvenate. However, maybe 1 week isn’t enough? I believe that spring break should be extended an extra week.
Most students really stress the need for a break, with many experiencing high stress levels and fatigue as the year progresses. We should be really thinking, is 1 week enough to get students a proper rest? 2 weeks would be way more optimal to allow students the proper rest to prepare for the final chapter of their school year. It is also not irregular for a 2 week break to take place either, as winter break typically lasts two weeks in order to provide students with rest and prepare for the second semester. I believe a two week break would ultimately be beneficial to enable students to be more productive going into the final months of school as they would have a break from the fatigue and have time to prepare.
However, maybe spring break doesn’t need to be extended? Teachers may find it inconvenient that things they taught prior to the break taking place, with enough time off, will be completely forgotten by the time students return to school. This could lead to an irregular teaching schedule that leads to uncertainty on whether or not a topic should be taught or held off for after which throws the whole schedule into a mix.
Spring break is close to exams, meaning maybe it is most optimal to not have a lot of time off of school, so we have as much time as possible to retain information and prepare for what will be the final exams of the year. I don’t believe it’s a reach to say that if a break was extended, that the majority of students wouldn’t use that break to prepare for exams, meaning maybe more time in school would be beneficial towards reaching the end goal.
Both sides have positives and negatives tied to them and I can see why both sides would favor a longer or shorter break. Do we look more towards the education aspect? Or should we favor trying to better the mental health of our students and give them more time to rejuvenate for the final chapter of their school year?
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