2008 Woodie Awards
Should South Alabama have a fall break?
Matt Flanagan
Opinion Editor
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
"Oh my God! Matt Flanagan's for fall break on Facebook and arguing against it in The Vanguard! Flip-flopperrr!"
I know. You probably weren't actually thinking that.
But at any rate, I must precede my article by saying that, yes, I am for the inclusion of a fall break into the fall semester schedule at USA. I am for it in the sense that I, like many of my fellow students, get stressed out around midterm season and look to many avenues to mellow out and have a good time. And if fall break is any way to forcibly insert such recreational time into everybody else's schedules, so be it.
But here is where I do have a problem: If we at South Alabama were granted a fall break, we'd have to find the time in class to make up for all the classwork lost given a couple days -- or even a week -- off from class.
It's the same argument students give for summer classes: The fall/spring semesters are long enough to feel like you have a knowledge of the material by the end of the semester and didn't needlessly cram things in just to make the whole experience go by faster than if you had taken it in the fall or spring.
How about we move to a more scientific argument? I'm in a geeky enough mood right now.
The law of conservation of mass is an appropriate topic to tangent when discussing fall break. And I mean that in the utmost sincerity.
In the law of conservation of mass -- as I remember from high school chemistry-- the central concept is that you cannot create or destroy matter; it can only be moved around. Much in that same fashion, time cannot in and of itself be created nor destroyed; it can only be used for different things at different points.
Therefore, if we were to have a fall break, we would necessarily have to either (a) have harder classes that attempt to cram several class periods of more information into them or (b) go to school for a couple days extra, either at the beginning or end of the semester. Either way, we'll pay for our unused academic time with more time that otherwise would have been spent doing what we wanted.
Here's another example: We started class on Aug. 20, 2007, and we will end our fall semester on Dec. 4. We, therefore, have 73 weekdays (excluding the five holidays each fall) in which to soak in the academic glory of our classes. Since we don't have a set midterm period, we'll use this week for our theoretical "fall break" after "midterms," so the week of Oct. 22 - 26 will need to be "repositioned" academically to make up for the loss of class. We'd have to either start class earlier or end them later or even make them tougher. And I can guarantee nobody wants needlessly tough classes.
I know. You probably weren't actually thinking that.
But at any rate, I must precede my article by saying that, yes, I am for the inclusion of a fall break into the fall semester schedule at USA. I am for it in the sense that I, like many of my fellow students, get stressed out around midterm season and look to many avenues to mellow out and have a good time. And if fall break is any way to forcibly insert such recreational time into everybody else's schedules, so be it.
But here is where I do have a problem: If we at South Alabama were granted a fall break, we'd have to find the time in class to make up for all the classwork lost given a couple days -- or even a week -- off from class.
It's the same argument students give for summer classes: The fall/spring semesters are long enough to feel like you have a knowledge of the material by the end of the semester and didn't needlessly cram things in just to make the whole experience go by faster than if you had taken it in the fall or spring.
How about we move to a more scientific argument? I'm in a geeky enough mood right now.
The law of conservation of mass is an appropriate topic to tangent when discussing fall break. And I mean that in the utmost sincerity.
In the law of conservation of mass -- as I remember from high school chemistry-- the central concept is that you cannot create or destroy matter; it can only be moved around. Much in that same fashion, time cannot in and of itself be created nor destroyed; it can only be used for different things at different points.
Therefore, if we were to have a fall break, we would necessarily have to either (a) have harder classes that attempt to cram several class periods of more information into them or (b) go to school for a couple days extra, either at the beginning or end of the semester. Either way, we'll pay for our unused academic time with more time that otherwise would have been spent doing what we wanted.
Here's another example: We started class on Aug. 20, 2007, and we will end our fall semester on Dec. 4. We, therefore, have 73 weekdays (excluding the five holidays each fall) in which to soak in the academic glory of our classes. Since we don't have a set midterm period, we'll use this week for our theoretical "fall break" after "midterms," so the week of Oct. 22 - 26 will need to be "repositioned" academically to make up for the loss of class. We'd have to either start class earlier or end them later or even make them tougher. And I can guarantee nobody wants needlessly tough classes.
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