Keep the stress out of our winter break

Keep the stress out of our winter break

The eve of winter break and the holidays are finally upon students here at Eastern. It’s the time to relish our much-deserved respite and take pause to spend time with family and friends during our respective holiday celebrations. We have been working hard for the larger part of the first semester, so it’s finally time to kick back and enjoy ourselves before we transition into the second half of the school year.

   There’s just one problem. We’ve got homework to do.

  The Voyager staff, when collectively compiling responses, found that the amount of homework distributed over break varied from student to student. Some were lucky enough to have never received any major assignments over any of the school breaks; others had the stress of studying for multiple assessments and/or completing projects hanging over their heads at a designated stress-free time. A common assignment that repeatedly cropped up was either having to complete or read parts of a novel for English class.

  Other times, homework assignments were a little more flexible, with some time before and after break to complete a task. However, a common theme was prevalent in all of the responses—winter break is time meant to be spent away from our chaotic and activity-packed lives without the stress of homework impeding our ability to enjoy ourselves over the holidays.

  With the block schedule, it has become increasingly difficult for teachers to cover all of the curriculum that needs to be taught. To make up for lost time, many teachers fall back on the long stretches of days off to squeeze in as much content as possible. Understandably, teachers don’t have time for days wasted reviewing a topic; homework is a good way for students to hit the ground running once returning back from break so grades can be finalized and class may proceed as smoothly as possible.

  A  reasonable amount of homework over break is ideally no homework, but to avoid hitting that post-break slump that follows a week sans learning, an independent choice read or assigned book was deemed reasonable enough by the staff for students to deal with over break. It’s largely interpretive, stress-free, and portable; perfect for students going on trips who don’t want to have to deal with the unwieldiness of binders and textbooks.

  Anything more than that, and students will inevitably push their work to the side and won’t complete it.

  A study done by Duke University revealed that 77% of students found a positive correlation between homework assignments and achievement. Obviously, there is proof that homework will lead to mastery of certain subject areas, but at what cost? A study conducted by New York University found that chronic stress of today’s youth has impeded their ability to succeed academically, compromised their mental health functioning, and fostered risk behaviour. And that same Duke University study found that homework “can cause physical and emotional fatigue, fuel negative attitudes about learning, and limit leisure time for children.”

  Students need the winter break to recuperate, relax, and recharge. With ample time in the school year to pile on homework, this winter break, and future breaks, should be stress and homework free.