Dexter Simoneaux
Staff Writer
Isn’t it just wonderful to look at the school calendar and see that there’s a day off coming up? Is hearing Principal Calvin Freeman’s voice booming over the intercom the words: “There is no school tomorrow” anything short of delightful? For the collective student body, surprise days off are always welcome, however rare and fleeting they might seem. Whether it’s a national holiday, a snow day, or just a teacher work day, it’s safe to say they are days of rejoicing and respite during a long, stressful school year.
Perhaps days off are not something you pay much mind to unless you have one, but what about when you don’t have one? During the third quarter this year, there have been only two days off: March fourth and fifth, which were two consecutive teacher work days. Whether it’s Presidents’ Day or an early release day, is it not important that students have a break here and there?
“I feel like we deserve a little break off once in a while,” freshman Lynn Davis said. “The fact that we didn’t have Presidents’ Day off is kind of messed up to me. People [are] growing up; they [are] stressed. Sometimes we kind of deserve a day out.”
Granted, Presidents’ Day might not be a particularly momentous holiday for most students, but that isn’t to say that having regular days off school couldn’t have real value for students.
“It’s a federal holiday,” sophomore Aubrey McCarthy said. “I do think we should get it off, but it’s not that big of a deal. I do think that [having days off] is important for mental health, and just so that students can have time in case they have certain situations that cause them to get behind on their work. It gives them a chance to catch up.”
Students’ mental health is an important factor to consider when evaluating days off from school. Having a temporary break from the stressful environment that school often is can be a powerful thing for the mind of stressed-out students. If students need time off to recuperate and catch up, should the burden fall upon themselves and their attendance, or should the responsibility fall upon the district?
“I think a mental health day every once in a while is a good thing,” senior Daniel Snipes said. “Back when we were in cohorts with COVID, those mandatory Wednesdays when no one was at school [were] pretty nice. I think that some of the breaks have been long, but I do think it was nice that we had that two-day break in the middle of the quarter.”
Of course, it’s not as if the district can magically fabricate more time to give us away from school. The harsh reality is that we’ve got to go to school for a certain amount of days. If the district gave us Presidents’ Day off, we would still have to come to school on a different day. However, changing the length and distribution of breaks could still provide a meaningful difference to students.
“I think winter break was a little too long because it was like fifteen days,” senior Malachi Kennedy said. “It just felt like a chore— coming back to school. Having an extra break allows you to focus more, rest more often, and allows you to recuperate and learn.”
It’s possible to conceptualize many utopian visions of what the schedule could look like, but unfortunately, individual students seldom gain the power to implement them. The Winston-Salem Forsyth County School calendar isn’t perfect, and for the foreseeable future, it’s unlikely to be. Such great changes are messy, complicated, and hard to get everyone to agree on. Though maybe we can start with something small, and just give students Presidents’ Day off. Is it not our right as American students?