Students in the U.S. may not realize how long school breaks are until returning from summer or winter break to discover they forget everything they learned from the previous semester. This is true for many students, especially those who don’t take summer or winter classes to keep their head in the game.
Schools should have more frequent, smaller breaks to keep students in the academic mindset. Summer breaks in the U.S. can last about three to three and a half months. That’s insane. In grade school it was fun, especially when hanging out with friends and going on trips. However, most people have to work during the summer, or don’t do much at all due to lack of money or transportation.
That’s not productive for the mind in any way, and may allow for backsliding. If we had more frequent breaks about the same length, then it may be more productive for the student.
The Atlantic describes how education experts came together to discuss the perfect school calendar. They explain that two weeks for every season, eight weeks in total, would be better than our current predicament.
Having adequate breaks spread evenly throughout the year would help with summer learning loss, reduce the amount of review for the start of the school year and help students to go more in-depth in their curriculum. This may even help with stress management if we have breaks of this length more often, because the stress of school can get to anyone, college level or otherwise.
Education experts also suggest open school hours extending from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. varying for different ages. This would allow for any extracurriculars before and after school, and it would match better with parents’ work schedules for an easier pick up.
The University should do away with these types of breaks. College students need more frequent breaks throughout the year to manage stress levels, instead of two large breaks after each semester.
Having a super long summer or winter break doesn’t do anything for us college students. It may give us more time to work, but it doesn’t help us academically, and it hikes up the anticipation for the next semester.
During our smaller breaks like spring and fall break, professors give us large amounts of homework. This makes the few small breaks we have even more stressful and less like a break.
The University needs to consider students more in this regard. Who is the University really helping with these odd and uneven breaks? Unless one takes summer and winter classes — which many students do not do — these long breaks will help no one.
Abigail Varnado is a 22-year-old English senior from Amite, Louisiana.
