Spring Break is over
Published on Mar 24, 2008 at 5:17 pm.
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Filed under college teaching.
Last week was spring break here at my college. Today is the first day back from the break. This year, the break seems to be about a week later than normal. Usually, we have half of the semester before the break, and the other half afterwards. This year, we have two weeks more before the break than after the break. Because Easter is so early this year, we had all of Holy Week off. As a child, I went to a church sponsored school, so we always took our spring break during the week before Easter. However, I don’t recall off the top of my head ever having that situation since I went off to college, either as a student or as faculty, until now.
Last year, I wrote a little about the spring break tradition in American higher education. When I was growing up, we got a spring break for part of Holy Week, but only because we were at a church run school. Most of my friends in the public schools did not get such a break. Eventually, the public schools began giving a couple of days in the spring in order to have a break similar to the Thanksgiving break that is a holiday here in the United States in November. Eventually, the public school break was extended to an entire week, just like the colleges. I am not sure that is a good idea. It is difficult enough for adults to keep continuity in their studies after an entire week off. It is far tougher for children. You nearly have to go back and repeat the weeks before the break.
This year, though, I got little accomplished over the break, compared with what I’ve done on prior spring breaks. That means that this week will be filled with a lot of catching up for me. It was a much needed rest, though, and I attended to some personal matters. But, now I am back to things at the college. Interestingly, I noticed this morning that the parking lot was mostly full. Usually after spring break, the parking lot is half empty from everyone who didn’t come back right away. I don’t know what to make of the difference this year. I guess that I’ll see if my students actually show up to all of my classes.
-Astroprof
