Dec. 23 is the day before we go on break. Every year break starts on the 24th. The exception is when the 23rd is on a Saturday or Sunday. The day has always been a half day, but because the day is on a Monday this year, is it really that important that we have to be in school?

Personally as a student, I didn’t do anything productive today. Most of my classes consisted of me watching movies and playing games. Though I wasn’t expecting to do anything, work was still assigned to other students. And as predicted, numerous amounts of students were absent from school. The half day seems ultimately useless and a loss of a day. Students could have had off today and have school another day.

A Response and Reason

Two weeks before break, I asked a teacher how she felt about the day and she said she was fine with it. The teacher responded that “The teachers and students minds won’t be in the right place before the holidays.” She mentioned that the day didn’t matter in a good way. However, when asked again at the end of last week, her opinion changed. She had experienced a rough week and now feels differently toward the half day, saying “I just want this week over with. Winter break can’t come any faster.”

We have school today because it’s required for students to have  180 days of school. Rosh Hashanah, as well as some other religious holidays were cut from our calendar this year; this causes students to get out of school earlier just by a few days. The class of 2020 will graduate on June 18, apposed to 2019 on the 21 and 2018 on the 21st. The 2018 school year had an extra day put on it, which caused the sudden delay. Getting out of school earlier is the reason we don’t have as many days off as we would usually.