Ruth Nguyen (’16) stresses over load of homework and projects assigned over Thanksgiving Break. Photo by Christine Caoby Christine Cao and Katherine Reis, Staff Writers
With finals and the semester’s end around the corner, it is reasonable that teachers push to keep students focused and punctual– even during Thanksgiving break. On the other hand, breaks during the school year are supposed to be designated time away from work, not treated like a normal school-week.
Giving assignments over any break is usually controversial, although by now, students are very used to it. As we often hear teachers talk about how beneficial it is for us to keep up on work over break, and how assignments over break help us stay on track and prevents us from falling behind, we respect their opinions. We know that they want to help us learn and succeed. However, students usually feel very differently about receiving the work.
Senior Ruth Nguyen (‘16) can reason with teachers who assign “a moderate amount of homework [during break] so students do not forget the material” but she believes “projects should be assigned before or after a break.”
“Of course I never want homework or a project over the break” said Ceslee Gonzales (‘16) “but I feel like I’m going to get them anyway, so it would be nice if they were really short or a small assignment that wouldn’t stress me out or make me feel like I’m wasting my vacation.”
Many students have strong opinions about receiving any type of work over the break.
Peter Juarez (‘16) said “Thanksgiving is a reflection of enjoying and being thankful for all the things one has. Teachers don’t get homework during the break, therefore why should students?”
“I think that having work to do over break doesn’t serve its purpose. We shouldn’t be given projects and homework that we either don’t do, don’t have time for, or wait until the last minute. We aren’t learning when we do the work either…the point of a break is to actually have a break. In fact on Thanksgiving, we should be spending time with our family, not sitting in a room trying to make time for work” said Rachelle Speckler (‘16)
The general consensus is that students don’t appreciate receiving work over break. Alfie Kohn, a respected American lecturer and author, also has a strong opinion about homework in general. In his research, Kohn has found that giving homework to high school students “…had no effect after all…at best we’re only talking about a correlation — things that go together — without having proved that doing more homework causes test scores to go up.”
In fact when someone doesn’t understand afterward its up to other people that they
will help, so here it takes place.