Students spend about nine months in school every year, and only about three months having a summer. That means that with winter and spring breaks, students are in school about two thirds of a year. In high school, that means 5 days a week of 70 minute classes, and at least 8 hours of homework per week. This doesn’t even include extracurricular activities, which could take 1, 2, 3, or 4+ hours of time every day, depending on the student. This routine schedule, which takes up two thirds of a Blake high schooler’s life, gets really tiring, really fast. This is why when summer rolls around, it becomes a valued time for relaxation.
Depending on the year, summer lasts 2 and a half to 3 months, only one third of the year for Blake high school students. Along with that, Minnesota weather can shorten the amount of time that students are able to do usual outdoor activities that they love to do in the summer. Snow can go all the way into May sometimes, in which case the students only have one month before summer to do outdoor and summer-like activities; yet this is also the time in which there are finals, AP tests, exams, and a lot of homework for students. Because of all of this, it is important for students to take the three months of summer that they have to relax. Although students may have summer school work such as reading or math, that is required for their classes the following year. Aside from that required school work, free time during the summer should be valued. This time can be spent sleeping in, hanging out with friends, reading, and doing usual summer activities, such as swimming. Finally taking a break from a long school year is important for all high school students to do during the summer.
Sam Leslie ’24 says “I think during the summer you have more opportunities to do whatever you want with your free time, so like, playing sports, hanging out with friends, just like generally watching shows, just chilling. After a really long school year with finals and stuff, it’s pretty valuable to have a period of time to not do anything.”
