The most important aspect of a student’s academic career is performance, and what matters most for anyone sensible is their mental health and social life.
It is impossible for students to do well in the former without first caring for the latter. So that’s why students and professors alike get days off, such as the two around Thanksgiving. But many groups and sources argue that just two days off in the middle of the week isn’t enough time for college goers to unwind and rewind.
One such source, Oklahoma University’s editorial board, published an article on their website, oudaily.com, writing of the importance of a full week of studies for students by stating that most classes are structured around the course of the whole week, due to said classes not being held every day.
According to Oklahoma University daily, without this full schedule to develop and teach courses around, the remaining days not taken by Thanksgiving break become useless. Because of this, professors will cancel classes scheduled Monday through Wednesday, thus giving students a full break anyway.
An extended thanksgiving break is just as inevitable as it is necessary.
Taylor Harris, a contributor to the Daily Aztec, makes a point that the less time off there is, the more of an impact will be felt by those who go to college out of state.
Thanksgiving is a time to be spent with family. And this means that students who, for example, live in Texas but have family in Washington will need to purchase expensive plane tickets in an inflated economy in order to spend time with relatives during the holidays.
Since Pierce students only get two days off and two weekend days, four days in total to spend with family, those with relatives across the country will have to spend two of those days and lots of money flying out and, almost immediately, returning.
If the break lasted for a whole week, this wouldn’t be an issue. People with distant relatives could plan their trip around the course of 10 days instead of four, and not waste money on a trip that only lasts four days.
As for others, while family may or may not reside outside the state, the limited amount of time off provided to Pierce students fails to accommodate the fact that some people’s families are spread out.
An article on theodysseyonline.com states that it may cost them extra time to visit and spend with each individual household.
Think of the long bus/train rides one would need to take to see different groupings of their family. Also consider that a certain amount of time would need to be allotted with each family member. Taking all this into consideration, it becomes clear that thanksgiving could last for many days, depending on the family.
There is more to say in favor of an extended Thanksgiving break than the age old argument about mental health and time off with family; those things are just a given. People who only believe there should be four or five days both fail to consider the circumstances of travel time and cease to understand the importance of a full week of classes. There is much more to a good time spent relaxing than meets the eye.
