Every year high school students work themselves to the bone to pass their finals and to compensate for that we get a measly two week break? Maybe in middle school and elementary it was good enough but now it’s barely making the cut. As holidays are coming up students have an abundance of plans to do with family, friends, and loved ones. From a mental health perspective students would thrive with a minimum of a three week break.
Now, some might think that an extended Christmas break would be unnecessary due to the break already accommodating the two holidays that occur during it but Christmas break is more than just time to spend celebrating festivities.
For many teens here at Gabrielino High School Christmas break is not a vacation but a time spent on recovery from an overload of school work. According to a 2014 Stanford University study on student stress and academic performance, 56% of students often get burnt out and academic performances decrease.
English teacher Adam Calleja states “I do know that with Christmas break students are rather busy so I do think that they would benefit emotionally from an extended break.”
When put into perspective a longer winter break isn’t crazy when compared to the average college break which is 3-6 weeks. When asked about the comparison sophomore Melanie Tun explained, “It definitely makes me think about last year when we basically had three weeks off due to the Altadena fires, which for sure made me feel more stress-free about coming back to school.”
Last year students finally got a taste of what a prolonged break would be like, it’s overall a hard concept to expect students to go back to a modest two week break.
Tun continued stating, “ I had just got back from visiting family and as devastating the fires were, academically I was glad that I had more time to prepare for the upcoming semester.”
Furthermore, the American Psychological Association’s 2023 annual stress survey found that 41% of adults find that the holiday season is the most stressful time of the year, as you grow older so do the expectations and responsibilities. Giving students additional time to decompress would not only benefit students but their guardians as well.
Freshman Claire Dowell adds “Honestly with it being the holidays some families are more tense than others, so I mean yeah, I do see the advantages of a longer break especially when it can help with the overall pressure of the holiday season.”
Beyond scholarly stress, teens are not just students but people with families who are struggling to balance academics and their own personal lives. Jumping straight from finals and holiday stress into new coursework makes the transition seem impossible to overcome for students.
Allowing students more time to rest can lead to a much more successful semester with them being more engaged in class, less overwhelmed, and having a clean mindset.
Schools should take the time to acknowledge the mental health benefits that a longer break provides to families and the community as a whole. Districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) already demonstrate that extended breaks can coexist with state instructional requirements: LAUSD maintains a three-week winter break while still meeting California’s 180 instructional-day mandate by converting pupil-free days into instructional days, effectively shifting non-student days into time when students are actively learning to ensure the required instructional total is met.
Ultimately, education should not come at the expense of students’ well-being; thoughtful calendar adjustments like these show that schools can support mental health and uphold academic standards.
