won’t tell you they visited a ton of colleges. Nor will they tell you they spent the break studying for an AP exam, or slaving over a grading period’s worth of homework. No, chances are, your parents had fun.
The original purpose of spring break was to give students an escape from daily academic worries, but lately spring break has become a time for cramming and college visits.
“I was supposed to go to Canada for the entire spring break,” said sophomore Praveena Mylvaganam. “But my parents cut my trip off just because of AP exams and college visits.”
This is the dilemma most of us face during spring break: wanting to have fun but needing to get work done. We normally have to choose one over the other, almost always with the same age-old outcome – school has to come first. And with SATs looming and college visits becoming more and more “recommended,” juniors especially have no time for the R&R that spring break was designed to provide.
Students should have a longer spring break in order to balance out fun and studying. When school’s out, we shouldn’t even have to choose between a good time and a cram session in the first place. It’s a complete lose-lose situation: the students who actually enjoy the vacation have to cram all of their homework into the Sunday before school begins, while the students who study and visit prospective universities don’t even get a real break to begin with.
Our spring break should be at least two weeks long. After all, it’s our only major break until the end of the school year. Spring break is losing exactly what defines it. Students have a right to a longer, more relaxing vacation from school.