The new year symbolizes a fresh start in terms of months, resolutions, and outlook on the incoming year. However, the start of a fresh new year does not occur in all aspects of Wake County high schoolers’ lives. Students return from a two week winter break to a harsh week of cramming, reviewing and studying before taking finals during the third week of January. The end of the semester should occur before students leave for their extended break in December to ensure that their break is truly a break: taking time off of the worries and stresses of school to return back in January refreshed and ready to begin the new semester.
Many high schoolers take rigorous courses throughout high school which has made studying a vital part of ensuring they keep up their high achieving grades. However, the awkward cut off between semesters that occurs only two weeks after winter break has not allowed students to relax during their time off. Students have their exams hanging over their heads, a constant reminder that they will have to return a week later to take the tests that have information all the way back from August in them. Students must devote time over what should be a “break” to prepare for the exams. Students who have grades that are borderline go into winter break unsure of what grade they will be ending the course with does not allow those students to have a restful break, instead they are worried about ending with the lesser grade and spend time determining ways to raise their grade.
Many students and their families visit family and friends over break, and many travel very far to spend the holiday season with their loved ones. Wherever one’s travels may take a student, a student’s access to textbooks, notes, and WiFi may be hard to come by. It is unfair to expect students to have high preformance on their exams when they lack the resources to effectively study over break.
If the Wake County Public School System were to change their schedule to allow exams to occur, the school year would have to start two weeks earlier and therefore would end two weeks later in May. Although this would contradict with North Carolina’s Save our Summers law, one that states that schools cannot start before August 25, it would not make the school year longer. However, it would tremendously improve the quality of the longest break of the school year for high schoolers. In elementary and middle school, students do not take exams and the change in semesters is irrelevant or signals a new elective classes. However all students will eventually go to high school and being able to take exams before the long break will be very beneficial for all students, regardless of if they are currently in high school.
When school comes back into session in the first days of January, students are nowhere near ready to get back to work right after the break, and the fact that they are thrown right back into the middle of the grading period makes it even worse. Students should be able to come in after a school-free break ready to learn something new, rather than worry about their past classes. The purpose of a break is to be a break. Students should be resting, relaxing and recharging for second semester without first semester mulling in the back of their minds.
