BY SKYLER JONES-BOXWELL
The end of the second quarter is approaching, along with the advent of the new year. This holiday season, as always, is a time of joy and cheer, of gift exchanges, and of spending time with family. However, one thing may stand to jeopardize that: the timing of winter break.
To start, previous years saw almost a full week before Christmas Day, with the break concluding soon after New Years. But now, winter break is scheduled to begin on December 24th, a date that not only marks Christmas Eve, but also the beginning of Hanukkah, with Kwanzaa starting two days later. Obviously there’s not much that can be done about this, since as per usual winter break begins on the last week of December and ends the first week of January, and it just so happens the days were arranged slightly different this year. But that doesn’t mean this unavoidable consequence of the 2016 calendar won’t pose any problems.
The first, and most glaring issue that arises from this is the lack of preparation this affords to anyone seeking to buy gifts for the holiday season. With barely a day off before the major gift-giving holidays of the season, parents hard-pressed for time and teenagers too busy with responsibilities can afford only the weekends, if that, to find gifts for their family and friends. In fact, with full-time adult employees working an average of 47 hours a week, and part-time employees working an average of 26 hours a week according to Gallup’s annual Work and Education Survey, there is very little free-time for teenagers and their parents to either go shopping or craft hand-made gifts.
Another interesting consequence pertaining to this year’s winter break is the exact end of the second quarter, which is expected to be a week after the end of winter break; this in theory gives another possible week for teachers to put in grades before the semester closes. However the consensus has been reached that instead, the majority of teachers will stop putting in grades the week of December 11th-17th, the last week before midterm exams. One major disadvantage of this is that the length of the quarter is effectively shortened: a total of 8 weeks compared to the first quarter’s 10 weeks. But contrary to this, a longer quarter would be much more beneficial to student learning. According to Concordia University, the exposure afforded by longer academic terms allows for better quality of instruction because rather than just learn the facts, students have more time to learn theories and generalizations. Longer quarters also mean that when a student is having trouble and their grades start dropping, they still have time to work and improve their performance. The current calendar, unfortunately, will be detrimental in this regard.
In one respect, I will concede on the benefits of this winter break scheduling, in that it would allow students and parents more quality time together after Christmas break, with the added advantage of having presents to enjoy. However the days leading up to Christmas have equal significance. The 25 days of Christmas programming block comes to mind, where families can watch movies that are being aired on major channel networks from December 1st-25th. There’s also the celebration of Advent, or the historical Christian celebration of the days leading up to the birth of Jesus, with the possible involvement of fasting or folk traditions. If more time is afforded before the end of the year, and to before Christmas, there would be more time for family bonding, whether through pop culture or folk culture.
Overall, the scheduling of this year’s winter break is a slight inconvenience, and there’s not much that can be done anyway. Either way though, families still have the standard two weeks to celebrate a happy Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa, regardless of whether there is more time before or after the holidays.
