By the end of the third week between the stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas break, the students of New Trier oddly resemble the cast from The Walking Dead. From their baggy eyes to their sluggish trudges through the halls, I wouldn’t be surprised if the student body was mistaken for a zombie apocalypse.
I don’t go a day at this school without hearing the phrases, “Wow, I’m exhausted. I only got four hours of sleep last night” or “yikes I can’t believe it is only Monday” or even “this week is going by tremendously slow, don’t you think?” To be honest, these phrases annoy me. Everyone has to stop acting like babies, and suck up a week that lasts a full five days.
I think the New Trier schedule is at fault for the student’s lack of ability to adapt to a full week schedule.
Especially near the beginning of the year, I can’t pick out more than two weeks on the calendar where we have multiple full weeks of school in a row. Whether we don’t have school because of parent teacher conferences, or the late start – early release schedule, a full week is a rare sight to see.
After a while, students are getting used to the relaxed weeks, and excess time for getting homework done. And after a longer while this becomes the norm.
Unfortunately, because of this negative adaptation that the students have acquired, I’ve noticed school attendance and focus dropping at a concerning rate. You would think that with more days off the students would be more rested, right? Wrong.
We got so used to our relaxed schedules that the normal week comes as a huge and horrible surprise. This is when we whine and cry.
The fact that our schedules are so scattered has caused students to have unmanageable amounts of homework during these very short weeks. This only leads to students having panic attacks at night and begging parents to let them stay home to “catch up” or pretend they are doing homework while they actually watch Netflix instead.
If the answer is “no” from their parents, they end up coming to school so stressed to the point where they can’t even listen to the lectures being taught in their classes.
I have to admit, I’m not even sure if a single girl in my advisory has made it a full week at New Trier. I know that my advisory isn’t alone on this one either. This might be an exaggeration, but haven’t you noticed how many people show up late to school or sign out in the middle of the day?
Trust me on this one, not everyone is missing this school because of a doctor’s appointment or their “weekly orthodontic checkup.” As students of New Trier, we feel that we have the right to miss school during full weeks because going to school Monday through Friday isn’t what we are used to.
When the dreaded school months of February to March come around, students are barely able to make it out of the school year alive. By this time, full school weeks become a normal routine, but the students of NT never find a way to adjust.
I heard that we are not going to have any days off of school next year because the construction team wants to complete the renovations to the school as quickly as possible. According to the many rumors going around, we will only have two days for break this year AND we will be starting a week earlier. Start preparing now, kids. It’s going to be a jam-packed year.
For all the students still attending New Trier next year during the referendum where many days off have been removed: GOOD LUCK.
Mad props to whoever can survive that one.