Not such a relaxing vacation after all

Not such a relaxing vacation after all

While many Davis High students are looking forward to a relaxing break, completely devoid of homework, other students have assignments and projects to work on.

Junior Carolyn Irving will be spending a number of hours this Thanksgiving break working on AP U.S. History assignments.

“There are two worksheets and a chapter outline I have to do,” Irving said.

Irving is upset that she has school-related things to work on this vacation. “If it’s not an advanced class, I don’t think they should assign homework over breaks,” Irving said.

The Davis Joint Unified School District Homework Policy states that, “Weekend and holiday homework shall not be assigned.” However, this restriction does not apply to honors or advanced placement classes. Such courses are free to dole out homework at any time.

Senior Mikaela Zufelt’s AP Calculus BC class has taken advantage of this exception. She has a homework assignment due the first day back from vacation.

“My opinion is that teachers should not have homework assigned because it is a break, but they maybe could hand out optional assignments that would help students retain the information they recently learned,” Zufelt said.

On the other side of the equation, Physics Honors teacher Wayne Raymond offers his opinion regarding homework over vacation. “I generally try to avoid assigning homework that specifically has to be done over break,” Raymond said.
“If I do assign something, I usually try to have it be due a day or two after break.”