Winter break is a much-needed break for RM students and teachers after all the studying and the tests beforehand. It’s a time for travel and relaxation with family and friends. It’s a time to visit extended family. It’s a time for seniors to reflect on early college decisions or start preparing for regular decisions.
Of course, it’s not only for students but for teachers as well to be free from grading hundreds of tests and homework. But one week goes by in a blink of an eye, and many students are left wondering how time passes so fast by the time Jan. 1. rolls around.
The issue of winter break at RM is a minor issue that many students feel will never change. Even though RM is an IB school and since many students are part of the IB program, the workload for students increases drastically.
Along with the IB program, several students take advanced classes like AP or honors. However, this is not to say that only students taking higher-level classes feel stressed, as other students may still have a large workload and feel stressed.
At Montgomery County Public Schools, the just over one-week winter break contrasts with other schools in America which have two-week long winter breaks, leaving students envious. Why should our schools have a week cut for the break?
This one week interferes with travel plans and family visits because students now have a shorter time window to plan these things out. Many students would like to see Montgomery County implement the same two-week winter.
Sophomore Kris Donchev said, “a two-week long winter break would be nice. It would help more; I would be a lot calmer [and] less stressed.”
Other students don’t feel the same way about the winter break issue. Since it’s always been one week they feel that a one-week long winter break is enough to recover. But even these students wouldn’t mind seeing a two-week-long winter break.
“I don’t know. Like it’s about the same as I’ve usually gotten from the week of Christmas to like after the day after the new year,” freshman Jonah Lee said. “I think it’s probably fine. Like if it was longer I wouldn’t mind that. It’s good.”
Unfortunately, the reality is winter break in Montgomery County is not a big concern. The length of winter break has never been a main concern at many board meetings and Montgomery County already has its hands full with issues of safety and racism. Some students think wishing for two weeks of winter break is unrealistic.
“I think it should be two full weeks, but the school has no control over that so we can’t do anything because the county decides break schedules,” sophomore John Orman.
But that doesn’t mean students can’t demand little things from Montgomery County. A week increase in winter break is a little thing for the county to do but would improve the mental health of so many students.
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