Well, my guess is that a lot of people are feeling burned after around midterm time in the Fall. Its not totally unreasonable to want a break.
However, I would like to make a suggestion in case any staff, or anyone else involved with the potential establishment of a fall reading week are reading:
Students do need breaks every so often. With weeks and weeks of non-stop work, we can get burned out. It happens, and I don't think its reasonable for some people to say "I do okay without a reading week, so anyone that needs one is a pussy." A break, even a small one, would be a big help to people. However, I think that a Fall reading week is a very poor solution for a few reasons.
1) We lose a whole lot of days that must be made up later. This is an issue because we either lose some if not all of Frosh week, or we push back the beginning of the winter break, possibly BEYOND Christmas. Frosh week NEEDS to be a week. If it isn't you'll lose a ton of leaders AND frosh that participate. Its also terrible if people's already limited vacations are shortened, especially if they're families are international, or making vacation trips.
2) If a full fall reading week is instituted, profs WILL assign work for the students to do during the reading week. Don't pretend like it will be a vacation for the students; because the profs will still dump work on them to make up for it.
I therefore think that the most reasonable solution is two or three consecutive long weekends. If we include the Thanksgiving weekend in this, we only lose one or two days that must be made up, not five. In addition, because its not one massive break, profs won't assign too much extra work to the students.
Its not so much "I do okay without a reading week, so anyone that needs one is a pussy." as it is "the rest of the world outside of school functions just fine without breaks every 4 months". Most jobs will not start you with more than 2 weeks vacation, while at school you already get 6-9 between terms and with a spring reading week.
I get just as stressed during Winter term as I do during Fall term so I really don't see why one should grant me a Reading Week while the other shouldn't.
Maybe adding an extra day to the thanksgiving long weekend would be nice, but otherwise I don't want a fall reading week. I live far enough away that I can only go home if I have 3-4 days off. Otherwise the lack of schedule throws me off and makes me more stressed out.
Why don't they just make frosh week one week early, so we can start school with enough weeks to have a reading week. Frosh week only applies to first years anyway (and leaders, but they volunteer to do it), so I don't see why they can't attend school a week early just for their first year.
Well, my guess is that a lot of people are feeling burned after around midterm time in the Fall. Its not totally unreasonable to want a break.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would like to make a suggestion in case any staff, or anyone else involved with the potential establishment of a fall reading week are reading:
Students do need breaks every so often. With weeks and weeks of non-stop work, we can get burned out. It happens, and I don't think its reasonable for some people to say "I do okay without a reading week, so anyone that needs one is a pussy." A break, even a small one, would be a big help to people. However, I think that a Fall reading week is a very poor solution for a few reasons.
1) We lose a whole lot of days that must be made up later. This is an issue because we either lose some if not all of Frosh week, or we push back the beginning of the winter break, possibly BEYOND Christmas. Frosh week NEEDS to be a week. If it isn't you'll lose a ton of leaders AND frosh that participate. Its also terrible if people's already limited vacations are shortened, especially if they're families are international, or making vacation trips.
2) If a full fall reading week is instituted, profs WILL assign work for the students to do during the reading week. Don't pretend like it will be a vacation for the students; because the profs will still dump work on them to make up for it.
I therefore think that the most reasonable solution is two or three consecutive long weekends. If we include the Thanksgiving weekend in this, we only lose one or two days that must be made up, not five. In addition, because its not one massive break, profs won't assign too much extra work to the students.
seems reasonable.
Delete+1
Frosh is useless and a waste of money and time.
DeleteIts not so much "I do okay without a reading week, so anyone that needs one is a pussy." as it is "the rest of the world outside of school functions just fine without breaks every 4 months". Most jobs will not start you with more than 2 weeks vacation, while at school you already get 6-9 between terms and with a spring reading week.
DeleteThe biggest problem with adding in long weekends in my view is that Mondays and Fridays would be inordinately affected.
DeleteI get just as stressed during Winter term as I do during Fall term so I really don't see why one should grant me a Reading Week while the other shouldn't.
ReplyDeleteNano eng has only one stream, and pretty much all of our work terms are during the winter. So we never really get a reading week except in 1B and 4B.
Delete@2a, thats one less than every other engineering. Not a big deal. You guys get an extra spring term, which is better imo.
Deleteneed a break; fuck Oweek, it's useless
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteO-week would be better if they actually did fun stuff! My friend told me about McGill's one and it sounded so much better. This school is so boring.
DeleteWhat kind of 'fun stuff' do they do?
DeleteHe's probably talking about the pubs/drinking, which McGill can do because 18 is legal for drinking in Quebec, but not in Ontario.
DeleteSorry not sorry you didn't make any friends and have a good time at OWeek.
DeleteI feel like killing myself midway through fall term
ReplyDeleteif enough people say that, we'll get one
Maybe adding an extra day to the thanksgiving long weekend would be nice, but otherwise I don't want a fall reading week. I live far enough away that I can only go home if I have 3-4 days off. Otherwise the lack of schedule throws me off and makes me more stressed out.
ReplyDeleteBecause there are too many places that I want to visit for there to just be one reading week per year.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't they just make frosh week one week early, so we can start school with enough weeks to have a reading week. Frosh week only applies to first years anyway (and leaders, but they volunteer to do it), so I don't see why they can't attend school a week early just for their first year.
ReplyDelete