Mr. Rogers (A Math Teacher at NRHS)

When asked if NRHS students should have a longer Christmas holiday break, he responded saying “I feel like it would be nice to have a longer break, but I think a longer break would provide a lot of interruption to the continuity of the educational process so I don’t think it’s necessary, although it would be nice and I can certainly see why kids would want one." 

In terms of an increase in students' mood and happiness, he said, “Probably not as much as you would think. I feel like there’s just a limit on how happy a student could be made by a break. Let me put it this way: if we added 10% more time to the break, I don’t think kids would be 10% happier. I just don’t think it correlates to that much more happiness.”

Mr. Rogers was also asked to explain if he thinks a longer break could make students more productive. He replied saying, “No, I don’t because I think students would lose their momentum, and that is hard to come back from a break. So no, not necessarily. I would like to see if there could be more breaks but more spread out. More frequent breaks but maybe smaller ones. I often say to my colleagues that if we would take our February break one year and instead of having all that time together, and just spread it all out, and had a bunch of 3 day weekends, I think that might be something that may be a little better, because we don’t have those long weeks without time in between, and then when it’s only 3 days off we don’t have those interruptions to the continuity.”

Mr. Keeperman (A History Teacher at NRHS)

When asked about a longer break, he answered, “Yes. I just think, especially this year, that students are adjusting back to full-time school, and I think that also with the COVID numbers going up, maybe coming back to school online, for a week, or just giving them an extra week. Mentally, for students, this is a rougher stretch of school they’ve been through, so I think a couple of weeks off would refocus and re-energize some of the students here at North Rockland."

Next, I asked him how a longer break would make students more productive, to which he responded by saying, “I just think a lot of students right now are just burnt out because they’re not used to being in school for this long. In terms of maybe posting some assignments, maybe something online, or an assignment for them to do to keep them in tune with school work, but nothing too heavy. I just think students right now, in my sense, from being in the classroom, is that they’re burning out more quickly than they have in the past. So, I just think they need a little bit of time to re-energize and to look forward to the 2nd half of the year."

The final question I asked him was one regarding the cons of having a longer break, and he said, “Well, some of the students might fall back into some old habits of sleeping later, therefore, having trouble reacclimating back into school and getting up at 5 o’clock and getting back into the routine of going to school and going into periods, doing their homework—once they get a taste of a couple of weeks off since they were coming off of this COVID break, they might have a tough time getting back into the groove.”

I asked Michael if NRHS students should have a longer Christmas break, to which he said, “Personally, I think yes because, honestly, we all just get really stressed over all the work we have, and then just having longer breaks just let us have more time to recover our brains from doing all this work. It’s really stressful for young people doing all this work at our ages, and yes, people can argue that we need to be taught these things, and how to deal with more work, but it’s still valid to have longer breaks to recover.”

Next, Michael contemplated the question of if students would just overall feel happier with a break. He answered, “Of course! There would be an increase in happiness because we are getting recovery for our brain, and would probably be doing things we enjoy. And are there a few couples of kids that don’t enjoy staying at home? Yes, but that shouldn’t be a problem that affects every single kid, that’s just my personal opinion.”

I questioned him on how a longer break could make students more productive, and he replied, “A longer break would make students more productive because kids wouldn’t be so tired anymore. Like for me, I’ve been sleeping till 2 AM, 3 AM, but with a longer break you’re able to recuperate your sleep schedule, just like that, since it’s not easy with school.”

My final question for him was, "What are some cons towards the break being longer?", and he said, “Some cons could be that we could forget what we’re doing in a particular subject, and just be off track on where we’re supposed to be, but I don’t think that could be an issue.”

Jesseny Perez (‘23)

I asked Jesseny if she thinks NRHS students deserve a longer Christmas holiday break, and she responded with, “In my opinion, I believe North Rockland High School students should get a longer break only because at North Rockland, I feel like the kids work very hard and we’re, very much, in a lot of cases, are overworked and I think we are deserving of a break. After a while, stress can build up over time, and it’s important to get that time off to rest and recharge and be able to perform at our best ability in school. Performing at your best ability is important because, in order to grow and mature as a young adult, you need that time to refresh, and I think having more time during break would give us more time to rest up and be better."

After I asked Jesseny if there would be a rise in students’ mood and happiness overall, and she said, “I definitely think there would be students who are, not more so happy, but just feel like they've been able to recover from the amount of stress school does give us, but I think in most instances, some kids are going to be happier with less stress, because school can really make kids depressed, and feel down on themselves. Having that time during break to reflect is really important, and like I said before, to recharge."

Next, I asked about the opportunity of students using their free time to be productive, and she replied saying, “I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about a longer break, such as how it could make students less productive, but I feel like a break is important because it gives kids time away from school to find themselves and do things they love, and spend their time on things that actually really care about, and are passionate about. So, I think, in that sense, kids are way more productive. Not only that, but I think that during break, you’re able to recharge to get back to school, and you’re able to perform better."

My final question to Jesseny was one regarding cons towards having a longer break, which she acknowledged by saying, “I feel like the only con for a longer break is that a lot of the students sometimes can be put off course, but I feel like if students are taught that a break is really time for yourself, then it gives them the mental time to prepare and to come back, but I can see how in some cases a break could be bad, seeing as some kids may not have a good home life, or they have certain things going on, that could make them worse and less productive going back to school."