Editor’s Note: The opinions and attitudes expressed by the author are those of the author and not necessarily of the publication’s editorial board.
Did you find coal in your pre-Christmas stocking? Just because winter break is approaching does not mean Santa is giving students a break from work.
For the past few days, I’ve been reminding myself of winter break, Christmas and relaxation to get myself through the agonizing pains of work from teachers that all madly rush to finish the unit before the end of winter break.
I understand, teachers, especially those teaching honors or Advanced Placement courses. You have to teach a certain part of the curriculum before winter break so that the students won’t forget it over the break, and you have to finish the unit because it’s been going on for too long and students need to cover the material needed on that test in May.
Unfortunately, the reality for students is that this means an influx of tests, quizzes, homework, projects — you name it — to put up with. If most Paly students are like me, they probably come home and take a short break before attacking that enormous pile of homework, whittling it down little by little, chowing dinner, going at that homework pile again, studying for a test.
And I sleep early for a Paly junior.
The problem is that kids don’t get this amount of work from one single class, but from all of their classes at once. And that can be a stressful amount of work. I mean, who would voluntarily sit down and work on three AP Biology or AP English or Trig/Analyt or Geometry assignments while knowing you have a test every. single. day. of. the. week.
That’s right — no one.
The homework load is so bad that one of my friends got only one hour of sleep. That’s 60 minutes of sleep — less than half the amount of time it takes to finish a hard math assignment. Another one of my friends had to sleep through first and third period because she didn’t go to sleep until 6 a.m. that same morning. That kind of sleeping is detrimental.
I know that this is partially, really, our faults: This is your fault! You signed up for it!
Right, I did, because with the pressure of high school and college nearby, and of course the appeal of taking courses that you actually enjoy, the work load may pile up. But that doesn’t mean that students’ “welfare,” if I may call it so, doesn’t matter.
So here’s my reasonable suggestion. I simply ask that teachers try to wrap up the unit earlier than the last week of winter break.
It’s like the whole frog story in An Inconvenient Truth. If a frog is dropped into a boiling pot of water, it’ll immediately jump out. If the water slowly gets warmer, the frog will stay in the water longer, perceiving little change.
Maybe that’s the wrong analogy. What I’m trying to say is that a gradual increase of work before winter break would be less painful than the avalanche of work that hit students this week.
No matter if it’s the students’ faults or not, it’s important to remember that students want to do well in their classes but they also need the time to be able to do so. Just because it’s Christmas season doesn’t mean that we ever appreciate a giant lump of coal in our stocking, even if presents are coming later.