41 weeks. That’s how many weeks there are between the first day of school and last day of school. Yet, out of those 41 weeks, only three are full weeks off (two for winter break and one for spring break). Additionally, only 15 days are off for holidays, smaller breaks, and any other reasons. That makes up for another 3 weeks off of school. In total, without counting snow days, students and staff at AAPS only have six weeks of school off. 

Six weeks may seem a lot to some people but these breaks and days off are poorly spread out. Some stretches of consecutive days of school are exhausting for some students. For example, the stretch from the second week of school until Thanksgiving break is very long. During this period of time, only five days out of 60 are out of school. Even once that break comes, it’s only three days off, not giving us enough time to recover from that long stretch. Everyone agrees, having such a long time without a break is very tiring mentally.

Additionally, some students, myself included, get demotivated because they don’t have anything to look forward to. Whenever a break is just around the corner, students find motivation to do their work knowing they will get a break soon. However, everything feels longer when a break isn’t coming any time soon. A week feels more like two and doing homework is twice as boring. 

The worst part of this all is I get to hear about the amount of breaks my family and friends in France have. Whether in the big family group chat or on my family friends’ stories, I always hear about a new destination they have traveled to. However, this happens in the middle of October or February, while I’m stuck at school liking their posts. In France, they have two weeks off of school every six weeks. That means that they have four, two week breaks. This adds up to eight weeks off in a school year excluding days off for holidays and other reasons. 

Part of me is jealous, but it’s more frustrating. Why do they get more breaks? It’s not like they have a five week shorter summer. I will never understand it, but one thing I know is that we don’t get enough breaks in the school year.