The Philosophy of the School Year

Spring break is much needed. It signifies the end of the hardest part of the school year, and the beginning of the end. The hardest part of the year is between the end of Christmas break, and the beginning of Spring break. This is three months of consecutive school with no breaks at all. I know that some people may say that three months of school is nothing, but for high schoolers who are used to getting a week off every month of two, this is torture. Teachers expect more out of students and students want to be even lazier than they have been. This is not a good combination, and it results in teachers getting mad and students getting poor grades. Spring break is much needed time off for everybody to cool down and relax.

The school year can be broken down into four sections: Beginning, mid-break, torture time, and the end. The Beginning is the start of the year and everybody is halfway excited (even if they wont admit it) to be back at school and see all of their friends everyday. It goes by fairly quickly and easily because you are still getting back into a routine. This section lasts until the end of the first term or Thanksgiving break. The mid-break section is the time between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break. This is only about a month of school where nobody really pays attention, including the teachers. This is the best time of year because not much work is expected and you don’t really have to attend much school. But after Christmas break come the torture section. As I have discussed previously, teachers expect a lot from students and there is no fun to be found anywhere. This lasts for three months and ends at Spring break. The last section of the year is the end. This is from Spring break until the end of the school year. This section is at least tolerable because the weather is getting better so we don’t have to be cooped up inside all the time. It is also the section when the idea that school is almost out comes to play. This idea works wonders for many students because they think to themselves, “well, there’s only two months of school left, if I have survived thing long, I will be able to make it to the end.” And, after Spring break, most students do make it to the end.

This is the philosophy of the school year, and why Spring break is one of the most important times off for everybody in the school.

The "Holiday Season"

The “holiday season” is about 3 weeks too long. The first time I saw a Christmas commercial advertising a sale on TV was before Halloween. BEFORE HALLOWEEN!!!!!! That is just wrong. I thought that Christmas was supposed to be a holiday where good values and the birth of Christ were to be celebrated. Not some money making machine. Everything is always about money. We have to suck every cent out of Christmas that we can. We can’t let an old traditional holiday go unscarred.

For me, the “holiday season” should start on Thanksgiving and end a day or two after Christmas. It shouldn’t start before Halloween and end after New Years. That is just ridiculous. Companies are sucking every penny that they can out of this, and ruining a perfectly good holiday. The other thing about extending the time Christmas is acceptable is that radio stations and stores feel the need to play Christmas music. I can only stand so much of Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I heard reports of Christmas music being played before Thanksgiving, thankfully I wasn’t there, but I’m sure it was torture for the people who were present. My thanks for Thanksgiving- not being a victim of premature Christmas music playing. I think that a human only has a certain capacity to withstand Christmas music, and if stores and radio stations are playing it too long, than by the time Christmas actually arrives, people will be so sick of Christmas music that there will be no joy. I know that, as of December 17, I am already tired of these rudimentary jingles. But I see people still withstanding, I guess some people have a higher threshold with the power to endure Christmas music.

One thing that got on my nerves this “holiday season” was the atheist sign controversy. I’m not 100% informed on this because I do not live in Washington and I was not involved in anyway with this story. But I have my opinions too. I believe that there should have been no controversy at all. None. I do not understand the viewpoint of the people who were opposed to this sign. These people are hypocritical saying that the sign should be taken down. But I don’t see the atheist group complaining about the Christmas tree (they can call it a “Holiday” tree all they want but we all know that it is meant to be a “Christmas” tree) and nativity scene. It just bothers me that the majority religious group can do whatever they want, but the minority religious group has to be quiet and abide by the rules. I know that this is not a well constructed argument right now, but I will come back to this subject in a more thoughtful manor in a later post.