Opinion

V-Day: Neglecting a Nation’s Pride?

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[by Jiwon L]

Under the irregularly impeccable sky of Beijing, Chinese President Xi and his guests celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a military parade at the Forbidden Palace. After Japan’s formal surrender on 2nd Sep. 1945, the following day was declared China’s Victory Day, and has been commemorated ever since.

Xi’s announcements this year regarding military issues were unconventional and shocking. In contrast to the large scale of the decadal military parade including twelve thousand soldiers and hundreds of tanks and artillery, he announced that he had decided to cut the number of troops by 300,000, saying that “China will never seek hegemony or expansion.”

Despite Xi’s surprising announcements and the great scale of the military parade, what amused and puzzled the Rams the most was the reason that AISG did not have a break during these days. This year, the Chinese Government announced that 3rd and 4th Sep. were to be made national holidays. However, AISG did not set either of the two days as breaks, and students wanted to know the reason why.

One possible explanation is that there is a set number of school days and our school simply does not have enough days to set as breaks. However, such a justification would be invalid, because according to the 2015 calendar of AISG, there are two days of no classes for no reason.

The best reason that the school arranged two days of no-classes on non-national holidays instead of letting us have the V-J day break would be to give us a break during the busiest times of school. September and October are fully packed with school events. If we had more holidays or events, we might not have enough time for normal school days and our academics. Rather, when our lives are too monotonous, we could spare some breaks to make it more vibrant.       

We do not know if the school always makes the best choice, but not to have breaks during early September looks like a decision that’s not going to change after a long consideration.

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