The minute my dad sent me the email on the proposed schedule change from head of school Lee Thomsen, I put my cello down, read the email and, with wide eyes, gasped.
My suspicions had been confirmed.
Earlier, I talked to a friend about this. I didn’t believe that we might be losing our two-week Spring Break.
Four days would be added in February, expanding Presidents’ Day to Presidents’ Week, and two days would be added for a weeklong Thanksgiving break.
So what’s the problem? I’ll get my selfishness out of the way first.
I’ve always liked feeling special about going to a private school that doesn’t follow the same rules as public, government-controlled schools.
The first thing that came to mind was that more scattered weeks would just taunt me.
Having two weeks of Spring Break, which is close to the end of school, feels like a mini-summer.
But as I thought more about it, I wondered how it would affect students like me who have parents who live out of state.
For instance, my mom recently moved from Arizona to Minnesota, and since fifth grade, I’ve visited her exclusively during breaks.
A plane ticket to Minneapolis costs about $900 round-trip, and with a two-hour time change and layovers, the journey lasts 8-10 hours.
So just going to and from my mom’s house wastes two entire days.
With 14-day breaks, losing two days seems insignificant, as there are plenty of days spent with my mom.
But if there were shorter breaks, I would end up having fewer days on break while spending more money and doing more of my least favorite thing: eating mediocre airplane food while sitting in front of whining kids.
My parents might decide the the cost versus the number of days spent would not suffice, and thus I would see my mom only during Winter and Summer Breaks.
And my mom would not be happy with that.
Neither would I.
One week also makes it harder to visit colleges or travel internationally.
In addition, our two-week break is appealing to incoming students.
When we, the Ambassadors, went to Merryhill Midtown on Oct. 26, the kids were excited to hear that we had a longer break than other schools.
I guess that they may want to feel private-school special, too.
Or their parents live out of state.
—By Chardonnay Needler
