There are two major breaks in a year from school: summer break and winter break. Summer break lasts two months and involves (usually) no homework, as it is a relaxing period marking the transition from one grade to the next. I view winter break as the same situation, only smaller.

The way it should work is the semester ends right before winter break, thus leaving the student with a minor rest period from one half of the school year to the next.

Unfortunately, us proud Harrisonburgians choose to use this “break” as an extended weekend. Homework? Of course. The beginning of a new semester when we return? “Nah,” they say, “let’s leave two more weeks in and watch the students struggle to re-assimilate themselves into the schooling schedule before throwing a bunch of exams at them while they’re unprepared.”

Rather than tying up loose ends right before sending us off on a break, they let us go with the mindset of going on a break, while the reality of the situation is that winter break is just allotted time to study our butts off for the major midterms when we return.

This scheduling error isn’t just hurting the unprepared students. Teachers, instead of having a relaxing break because they already went through the whole exam fiasco, have to prepare the aforementioned tests while knowing, in their heart of hearts, that their kids aren’t spending the whole break relearning the entire semester in preparation for their test. No, the students are living in denial and avoiding homework until the Sunday afternoon before the return of school.

I’m not arguing for a longer break. I’m not even arguing for no homework, although, hopefully, that would be one result of a shift in scheduling. I’m arguing for a solution to a terrible mistake made by the Harrisonburg City School scheduling department.