As Halloweekend approaches a peculiar thing occurs on the LCPS calendar; a seven-day break beginning Oct. 30 and extending until Nov. 5. The end of the quarter lines up with a mashup of holidays and teacher workdays. This poses the question: should this become a permanent break?
With the Early Action common app applications being due soon many seniors will benefit from a break to take their minds off of school and focus on their common apps. College applications are often known to be time consuming and a process requiring a lot of focus, therefore a break directly after the end of the quarter offers a in between time. Casey Wales, the College and Career Center specialist here at Briar, states “An extended break is a good idea…it’s good for the seniors who are finishing up their college apps.”
This break also has its downsides as it pushes teachers to either place exams directly after or before the break which may add to student and teacher stress. As Emma Wilkins, a English teacher, explains “I will say I would definitely prefer to not have to cram them [assignments] in the end… [in English] we have diagnostics that we need to complete that take up quite a bit of time…so it’s a big problem for us in quarter one.”
While an in-between vacation seems appealing at first, it is important to consider all the ways it impacts students. For some it may become a vacation and time of relaxation after the end of the first quarter but may be to the detriment of others with its rushedness and perhaps end up inconveniencing people more than helping them.
