Holidays are the highlight of the school year for students who eagerly mark their calendars in anticipation. The 2019-2020 calendar published by MCPS left a lot to be desired for students compared to previous years.

Every year, the calendar made by MCPS has appeared to give students and teachers less time off than the year before. Whether it be to compensate for snow days or because of a change in state laws, it seems our holiday breaks are getting shorter and shorter by the year. While we do have more single day holidays and three-day weekends, it’s harder to enjoy these days off in such a short time.

For those observing a religious holiday, the day off isn’t time to relax, but time spent with family, focusing on their religion. With only one day off that is spent practicing religious observations, it is not a true day off for students participating, so they don’t get to experience the same relaxation that those not taking part would. For occasions like these, there should be more than one day off so there can be a day of rest after the religious holiday. Holidays like Easter and New Year’s Eve have a day off after the actual holiday’s celebration, kind-of like a cool down afterwards.

Just one day off in the middle of the week seems to give teachers the green light to assign more homework than usual. In these kinds of cases, the students have so much work to do, that they might as well be at school during the day at home. The majority of singular days off are religious holidays, not national holidays, so when teachers decide to assign extra workloads, it’s hard for students to fully participate in the holiday. During Thanksgiving, winter and spring break, there is also a significant workload that happens to be during a religious holiday, but since there are more days off, it is a more reasonable time frame to complete it all.

As the time span for extended breaks is reduced, it feels like we have ample time to spend with our families. For those with family far away, it’s hard to find a time that works with everyone’s busy schedules that Thanksgiving, winter and spring break typically offer. Families larger in numbers can be more difficult to accommodate for as the time span is decreased.

Time given off by the country, state, and county help both students and families relax together, and take a break from our busy lives, but it’s hard to do so with the looming thought of school still in the back of your mind. Instead of giving such an excessive time period off for summer break, the county should put some of those days back into the calendar to help break up the busy school year.