Is winter break worth our time?

Break is over, and everyone’s back to the new spring semester. Students are wearing three sweaters and a coat, and are trying to make sense of new classes while navigating chin-deep snow and fighting a head cold.

This is also the time when students detox from the holidays and return to the junk food that many complain about (but few truly hate). And while the new semester may be hard, practically no one would change the cherished three-week break preceding it.

“As a professor, I really welcome the break,” says Dr. Kleiner, a philosophy professor at Utah State University. “I mean, I love teaching, but it’s nice to kind of get a breather. I always find the break really refreshing, because then you come back and you’ve had a couple weeks to clear your head and relax and recharge. I always find the beginning of the semester so invigorating, because everything’s out in front of you… So, I think the breaks are helpful.”

Kleiner’s sentiment is shared by most of the students, and perhaps even more this year as surrounding public school districts — elementary through high school — cut down their breaks to one week. Children all over the state didn’t escape school until Dec 23. Not only this, but in some districts, the term didn’t end before the break, it ended after, with final grades and finals stress following Christmas.

Akyra Hunt, a student at USU, can relate. “When I was in high school, I had trimesters, so Christmas break was in the middle of a trimester,” she says. “It was a lot harder, I think, in high school, because now we’re starting over again, so… I think it’s easier.”

But even with these college schedule improvements, there are some downsides to the break. Some students feel that because of how they spend the break, they aren’t as sharp coming back to class.

“I watch Netflix for eighteen hours a day, and therefore my brain dies a little,” Hunt said.

Between refusing to pick up a book or pencil and leaving the couch only for meals, many students can relate to this winter break slump. All over the country, suggestions and activities have been made concerning “winter learning loss.”

The Los Angeles Times said because of parent concerns, winter learning camps and workshops have popped up all over California, skirting around holiday dates and creating an environment in which students can keep their brains in shape.

So although many students in the district are sad to see the break go, leaving the free food and brainlessness behind may be for the best. Students should pay attention this week — is it harder to understand lectures? Harder to find motivation to complete the reading, or even just get to class?

This may not just be the depressing, fruitless desire for Christmas lights to come back. The way students have spent their time over the last three weeks could be damaging, and may even determine the first few weeks of the semester.

— katelynn.bolen@aggiemail.usu.edu