Holidays are a very important part of anyone’s culture with unique traditions and celebrations that come from diverse heritages and religions. These celebrations can go on for hours or even days, but different traditions may not get holiday breaks from school. With the seasonal breaks being the only extended holiday breaks, many festivities are ignored, which leads to issues with extracurriculars, attendance, and homework for students.
Balancing celebrations and schoolwork can be strenuous, especially when holiday breaks are not provided. Freshman Alexis Mariscal has given up sleep to fit her work and traditions into her schedule.
“It kind of sucks that we don’t get breaks because there’s a lot of Hispanic people over here and Three Kings Day is a very important day, even for Americans,” said Mariscal. “I end up taking all-nighters just to get my work done after my celebration.”
Students would enjoy breaks for their holidays as the preparations and the celebration can take up a lot of time. Senior Ishrat Madiha finds that work easily piles up if she has to miss school for a holiday.
“Whenever I miss [school] for Eid I honestly have to do my work three days later because those three days are so busy and there’s just no way I can get any time to do any work,” said Madiha. “It has become difficult just because there’s so much that I’m missing, so much that I’m having to do later.”
Students are not the only ones who suffer from a lack of holiday breaks. Teachers can also have complications with their schedule and workload. Algebra 1 teacher Farhina Shaikh has had conflicts between her job schedule and her traditions.
“I have to plan ahead. Last year, the STAAR testing was during my holidays, so it was really tough to take days off,” said Shaikh. “I don’t take too many days off during the school year because I save those days off for my holidays.”
Students of different cultures and religions may feel that the school calendar is biased toward certain religions and cultures. Sophomore Lyvia Sorkowitz believes that certain celebrations are treated differently than others.
“For Christmas break, it feels a tiny bit unfair to me that Christians just have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and that’s two days and they get two weeks off. For Hanukkah, it’s a full eight days and we don’t get any days off. No one really thinks about us,” said Sorkowitz.
There are a multitude of religions and diverse cultures in America that are represented in the student body. Madiha reckons that different holidays could be better accommodated in the school calendar.
“America is not just one religion. There are so many religions and I think we should respect all of them,” said Madiha.
With various religions and cultures, there are numerous holidays that students and teachers can honor, but many of these holidays don’t get days off to celebrate. This can make students and staff feel that their holidays are disregarded and that the school calendar is unfair. The lack of vacation days for these celebrations can also cause students to fall behind in classwork and rack up absences. Adjusting the calendar to include important cultural and religious holidays could provide both students and staff with relief and the freedom to celebrate without worry.
