Will we spend this Thanksgiving being thankful for family, or just thankful we have more time to study?
In today’s fast-paced learning environment, breaks from school amount to extended study halls rather than time to relax from usual workload stress.
Much too often, school breaks occur conveniently before a barrage of testing and academic work. The stress of my upcoming obligations follows me through these so-called breaks. I know I can’t truly relax when the impending doom of a chapter four Environmental Science test, a Government bill presentation, and my “integration by parts” homework is running through my mind. Could you?
This year, the first mid-terms, or semester exams, to occur at Shaker Heights High School since January 2020 will begin only a week after we return to school from winter break. So instead of enjoying San Francisco with my family, you can catch me evaluating integrals as we drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Regardless if you’re on a vacation or spending time at home, academic responsibilities distract from and inhibit leisure. On top of studying for tests that await us after vacation, we also must complete reading assignments, draft essays and finish packets and projects that all seem to be due the day we return.
Stanford University researchers found in survey data that spending too much time on homework meant that students were “not meeting their developmental needs or cultivating other critical life skills.” Breaks are opportunities for students to focus on extracurricular activities and social enrichment. When bombarded by work and studies, we lose our chance to indulge in activities that are crucial for the development of social and personalized skills.
After surveying students with open-ended questions, Stanford researchers also found that “[students’] homework load led to sleep deprivation.” The few times a year students are given time to recover their sleep schedules are interrupted by academic stress.
Students aren’t the only ones feeling the strain — teachers face similar challenges.
Surveys from the RAND Corporation show that work-life balance is increasingly difficult for educators, “who report significantly more job intrusion into their home lives than comparable working adults.” The same system that turns student breaks into stressful work periods also erodes our teachers’ personal time and energy, creating strain on both sides of our classrooms.
When teachers spend their breaks grading, planning and catching up on work instead of resting, they come back drained, and we feel it immediately. A teacher who hasn’t had time to breathe can’t bring the same patience, creativity or energy into the classroom, and that burnout trickles down to us.
In this cycle, both students and teachers are running on empty, and neither group ever gets the true break we need. If we’re going to keep calling these periods “breaks,” then they should actually function as such, for everyone.
I acknowledge that for some, the unproductive nature of just loafing is wildly unappealing. But, breaks also are some of the only periods when we can take on part-time jobs, shadow professionals, volunteer, travel, pursue independent projects. These experiences help us grow in ways standardized tests never could.
The times I’ve learned the most about independence, communication or leadership weren’t in a classroom; they were during unstructured time when I could explore my interests. But when every break becomes an extension of school, we lose chances to develop these practical skills that shape who we are outside of academics. In a society that emphasizes college and career readiness, it feels ironic that the system takes away the very experiences that prepare us for life beyond high school.
Calling this time off school “breaks” is false advertising. The academic calendar has been engineered so tightly around testing cycles that time off has become nothing more than a strategic pause in the routine, just long enough for everyone to cram, panic and then pretend we’re refreshed.
If breaks are supposed to give us space, then it’s time the school system stops crowding them.
