Every student loves a three day weekend. The only better feeling than waking up on a Monday morning and knowing that you don’t need to be in school is the feeling you get on the Tuesday of a four day weekend. But when shortened weeks become normal, that feeling fades, and returning to a full five day week becomes nightmarish.

Over the past few years, we’ve had more and more days off each year, mainly to recognize more religions and cultures, along with their holidays. Examples of these holidays include Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Lunar New Year. Recognizing more holidays and making more students feel included is a fantastic thing, and has been met with positive feedback from both students and parents alike.

Even though the change hasn’t been very noticeable in regards to the actual length of the school year, it’s easy to notice how we’re having more and more three day weekends and shortened weeks. In fact, 45% of the weeks this year have at least one day off, not including winter and spring breaks.

Shortened weeks used to be a luxury for students, a rare occurrence to be taken advantage of. Now, shortened weeks feel normal, and five day weeks feel exhausting and can burn out both students and teachers, especially near the end of the year. 

For example, from the end of spring break to the beginning of June, there are only 2 days off. As a senior, I know firsthand the stress that comes with the final quarter of the school year, and it’s not a good time for a long stretch of school days, especially if it’s the first one all year.

I may sound entitled or whiny, but this is a problem that needs to be fixed. It’s not fair for students to get used to a certain way of living and studying, just for them to be thrown into a tougher environment during the final months of the school year. 

I’m unsure as to what goes on in the administrator meetings that decide what the schedules will be for the following school years, but the 2023-2024 school calendar does not address this problem at all, and in fact, makes it worse with the shortening of winter break and the lengthening of the school year.

Unfortunately, since I don’t think that the LCPS Admin will take any action to fix these problems, the responsibility will land on the schools. Rather than trying to avoid the problem entirely by adding more days off, schools should try to counteract the stress and burnout by making full weeks more interesting. 

This can be done by having more spirit weeks, pep rallies, and school events. SCA has proven they can make school weeks more interesting in the past, and it should be their job to continue to do so. Teachers also need to take responsibility for their students’ well-being by providing as much support and encouragement to their students as possible, especially in the final stretch of the year.

Obviously, there are bigger problems in the world, but this problem shouldn’t be taken lightly. Having a large increase in school days can pile even more stress on students that are already very stressed out. This problem needs to be considered when the school calendars are being decided on, because it affects students much more than a lot of teachers and administrators realize.