It seemed that the moment winter break ended, the buzz over spring break began. Students were constantly counting down the days to their next break because they crave the fresh air outside of their school prison. In the dreary hallways of herded children giving off a suppressing air of stress, the students of Pleasant Valley high school look forward to alarmless mornings and sunny skies. Yet, when the break finally arrives, all previous dreams of relaxation are crushed by the student’s worst enemy: homework.
Although spring break should be a break – hence its title – students are incredibly frustrated to come back from their vacations with the expectation of turning something in. While some just simply forgot their responsibilities in their follies of youth, others just simply refused to do their work because they deemed it impractical. Yet, the students aren’t the only ones to have a distaste for the workload. English teacher, Maureen Dyer, speaks of how it isn’t just the students who are expected to complete assignments over break, “It really depends on what teacher you are, but I personally – along with the rest of the English department – had papers to grade over break.” While of course it isn’t all teachers who have to grade homework over break – gym teachers for example – almost every student will have an assignment to complete before their return.
Yet it should also be recognized that work is just a normal part of life and not everyone in the world gets the luxury of a spring break. Everyone has to work and adults in jobs other than teaching only get one to two weeks of vacation time a year, if they’re lucky. One might say to just suck it up and be grateful that some homework is all you have to do, because in the real world one wouldn’t be getting any kind of break at all. When asked of their opinion of doing homework over spring break, senior Gretchen Strobbe states,” I wish I wouldn’t have it (homework), but as a senior it makes sense since we have to graduate early. It also seemed like teachers were really good about letting people get work done before break even started.” So perhaps if students just bucked up and were responsible they might not even of had work in the first place. Besides, if one wants to be successful they should work hard like everyone else.
The difference of the mindset of a teen and the adult can not be disregarded, though. As easy as it is to say that teenagers should just do their work, one has to recognize the fact that teens are still developing. A study in the Clinical Physiological Science journal shows statistics from large national surveys portraying that from 2010 to 2015 teen depression rates rose a total of 33%. Today’s society is a world where teens are expected to work harder and harder and homework over their break time isn’t making it any easier.
Spring break needs to be a break. As easy as it is to ask students to just do their work, if we want healthy teens then they need to be given space. Everyone deserves a break, even teachers. Stop worrying about overachieving and getting your work done for once. Take advantage of the time given to you to reflect on doing what is best for you instead of what is best for your grade.
