Was the Winter Break too Long?

Concord Academy students returned on January 9, with boarders returning a day prior, from the winter break. The break this year was 23 days, and while this sounds like a luxury—especially to Concord Public School students, who only had 7½ days off—some students came back feeling as if the break was too long. 

Many studies have shown that taking breaks during the school year can be beneficial to students' learning. But how long is too long of a break? After a week of finals and weeks of studying leading up to finals, the three-week break seemed to be a nice refresher. The break was especially beneficial for many boarders, who got to go home and spend the weeks with their families. But this wasn't the case for some. Sebastian Suarez ’25 lives in New York, and even though he enjoyed spending the holidays with his family, he says that “The break was too long and I missed the community very much. [I'm] very glad to be back at CA.” While the beginning of the break, for many people, was filled with excitement for the holidays, the end turned into endless binge-watching and boredom. 

Another factor is how the break was for international students. For them, the holiday vacations are much more important, since they do not have the luxury of being able to visit family on weekends or shorter breaks. Jake Xu ’25, who lives in Shanghai, China, says that “I would’ve preferred the break to be slightly longer. Three weeks is quite a lot of time, but not enough to make up the year-and-a-half I could’ve spent with my family back in Shanghai.”

If the break was to be shortened, school would likely start later during the fall. While some would prefer this extension of summer, others still prefer the winter break.