Are There Too Many Breaks?

Since AISG is an international school, there are students who come from many different cultures. This is why the school has the responsibility to celebrate major holidays, especially those from Chinese and American culture. Some of the holidays AISG celebrates from both cultures include, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Labor Day, and many more.

Since our school celebrates many holidays from different countries, this can lower the number of days that we go to school. This topic has been brought up by many students and parents. Many believe that there are too many breaks during the school year and that students should have more school days. However, as assistant principal Mr. Tragert mentioned in an interview, “the majority of international schools have a school year of 180 days, and AISG’s school year has 181 days. From that perspective, AISG is very average in terms of school days within a calendar year.”

Although AISG’s school calendar is average, some argue that there are some problems with the schedule of the breaks. On the school calendar, some holidays we celebrate are only a few weeks within each other, which can affect the schedules teachers have planned for students’ learning. An example would be the few weeks of school days between the Winter holidays and the Chinese New Year break. As a result of this inconvenient arrangement, the schedule is rushed, students have to learn a lot during these few weeks, and the upcoming break can break the flow of the learning process. In response to this, Mr. Tragert stated that “we have an appropriate amount of time for the number of school days. We ask our students and teachers to work really hard, and the idea is that after working really hard, they will get a break. In addition, as AISG is an American school, and is located in China, it’s important that we do a good job of balancing and respecting the important Chinese and American holidays.”

Senior Winnie C. believes that having many breaks is not the only problem, but “the tuition is justified by the quality of the education we receive, not necessarily the time.” She stated that “we do have a lot fewer school days which [she thinks] sometimes is a bad thing because it interferes with the rhythm of the school year because we have summative’s and assignments.” However, although these breaks can interfere with the rhythm, “sometimes breaks are needed because there is so much happening in the school year, especially for seniors. Overall, I think the timing of the breaks has a big impact on the schedule.”

In addition, Rebecca C, a parent of two children at AISG commented that “[she thinks] there are too many breaks because it interferes with the continuity of school study. [She believes] that there breaks that could be taken out of the school calendar such as labor day and the October break.”

I hope this article resolved questions about the scheduling of breaks that have been in your mind for a long time.