Students often hear from their parents that Parker gives too many breaks. While Parker has April break, February break, a winter break, and occasional holiday off, all of these breaks in school start to feel necessary to students considering all the work that happens during the school day. Parker students feel overworked before winter break. After winter break, students have to take all their finals. When it’s about to be spring break and students are in that awkward time where it’s almost summer, but not quite yet, all they can think about is the vacation they’ve been waiting for all year, but all they have time for is studying. And February break students are in that “month” where tests and quizzes are daily occurrences, and all they have time for is studying. It seems that teachers cram in work before breaks so that they can hit that reset button when we get back. For Parker students, which month of the Blue Calendar is most stressful?
Freshman Lizette Velazquez said, “as a student, I think November is the worst month because you are already halfway through the semester and have to work extra hard to get through work before the holidays.” English Teacher, Mr. Mahany said, “the most stressful month is from January 11 to February 11. For teachers it’s hard because we have both finals to grade and comments to write. We don’t have that much time to write comments before the second semester, and a lot of us start a new class, so there’s a lot going on. I notice that a lot of my students stress around the week of finals, specifically this year because students had finals and classes simultaneously.”
Sophomore Ivy Rosenberg agreed. “January is the worst month of the year academically because we have finals and then we have to anticipate grades while navigating new teachers and harder curriculums,” she said. There seems to be a consensus that the middle chunk of the year is difficult for everyone, especially with the new synthesis cycle this year. Another sophomore had an interesting point: the weather affects a student’s ability to have a good month. Sascha Keller said, “I’d say the worst month of the year for students is probably January because it’s finals month, and it’s also very cold and that makes students sad. When it’s cold and snowy, being motivated to do work is harder.”
So November, January, and February as possible contenders. Perspective obviously matters here because everyone has different experiences and jobs. For example, freshmen may have a harder time with finals because they’ve yet to experience them, or seniors may have a harder time during the months in which they are applying to colleges. For teachers,the transition from first to second semester may be difficult because a lot is going on at once. It’s good to keep these things in mind when you’re stressed. Remember you’re not the only one. The overwhelming perception of grades at Parker makes times like these very tense for everyone in the school, but then those stressful periods end and we hit a break. Our closest one now is April break.
Cramming too much work into a short period of time could negatively affect a student’s grades and well-being, and make it harder to look forward to break. We speed past winter break and jump into finals and report cards, followed by the second semester scaries of new teachers, classes, and the intimidating or hopeful fresh start. Right when we get settled into the second semester, February break interrupts, and the week leading up feels daunting with teachers trying to finish all their units and tests before the break.
Don’t worry. When we get back, we’ll jump right back in, then we’ll have spring break, and then summer. Have no fear, summer is near!
