As the end of 2023 draws to a close, the length of the Winter Break remains a heated topic. This year, the break starts off like many others, with an early dismissal followed by a 10-day stretch of no school from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, consistent with many neighboring school districts including Hempfield School District, School District of Lancaster and Penn Manor. Yet, some Blue Streaks don’t think 10 days is enough.
“I think students should get more time off school,” said junior Henry Zellers. “The amount of work and effort that we have to maintain to get good grades is crazy, not to mention the lack of sleep…. [This winter break] is about half of what I would want to fully recover and get ready for the second half of the year.”
Some students feel that their effort in the first semester deserves a long, fulfilling break. The break also serves as motivation for the first half of the year, inspiring students to keep going by putting an end in sight.
“I think having a long winter break is really important largely because of the anticipation for it,” said junior Cam Zuschmidt. “It’s the one big break of the year students can look forward to, where they can enjoy seeing friends and family.”
Some students want the break to be longer to provide for more of these benefits, but others enjoy the current length and recognize the advantage of not allowing a break to extend too long.
“Getting back into routine is nice after a long break,” said junior Katie Benson.
School provides lots of benefits, including opportunities for friendships and extracurriculars. Some students appreciate these conveniences and enjoy a shorter break to allow for more of them, in addition to other more education-based advantages.
“I personally enjoy the length of winter break,” said junior Nicholas Rockwell. “Too long of a break can lead to forgetting content that we learned before.”
When approached from a perspective of education, it is understandable that some would rather not have a longer break. More time off can make recalling previous concepts more difficult.
