SOME PHRASES just are contradictions in terms. You park in a driveway but drive on a parkway. Study breaks are breaks from studying but smoking breaks are breaks for smoking. Boy bands aren't made up of boys and certainly aren't bands. In much the same way, Reading Days, although meant to be relaxing days set aside for reading, don't involve any reading except of the TV Guide or pizza coupons.
Any visitor to the University this past weekend surely would have wondered if Charlottesville suddenly had become a ghost town. As soon as students had their last class on Friday -- or Thursday for the lucky ones -- they fled the scene faster than Roger Clemons can throw a bat at Mike Piazza. Some visited friends or went on trips, but most went home. But no matter what students did between last Friday and this Tuesday, not a single one opened a book or unzipped a backpack unless they absolutely had to. After all, it was a holiday.
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Deny it all you want to, but the fact is that the majority of students see the Reading Days as a holiday just like Thanksgiving or Christmas, as a chance to skip town and relax for four days. They do know that they're supposed to be reading, but it's very hard to do when you're out of the University environment. It's been proven that individuals study harder and better when surrounded by others doing the same. That's why students are able to work so diligently during finals week. But it's a different scene when everyone goes their own separate way, usually to a non-academic environment where old friends and family thrive and books collect dust.
The University's Reading Days has both a misleading title and an insufficient purpose. No one wants to read when they are on a break from the University scene; it's extremely hard to convince yourself psychologically that a break is meant for anything other than lounging, sleeping and eating. It's always been this way, stemming back to when the hiatus was called Fall Break. Due to the same problems that exist now of no one reading, in 1996 the University changed the name "Fall Break" to "Reading Days."
But in the words of the World Wrestling Federation's ever-eloquent The Rock, "It doesn't matter..." Call it "Fall Break." Call it "Reading Days." Call it "Days When You Better Read if You Know What's Good For You." No matter what the break is called, as soon as students leave town they leave study mode behind.
Unfortunately, many professors view the break differently than their students. They expect students to be able to study just as well at home surrounded by mom's home cooking as they can at the library surrounded by a hundred other studiers. In a recent article in The Cavalier Daily, associate provost for academic support Shirley Menaker is quoted as saying, "The administration proposed the days off as a way for students to relive academic stress and catch up on reading" ("Professors manage to take the 'break' out of Fall Break," Oct. 20).
News flash Shirley -- reading is the cause of academic stress. If students really were meant to have days off to relax, then they wouldn't be expected to do so much catch-up reading.
This discrepancy of expectations is the cause for much stress when students return to Charlottesville well rested and over fed. A problem arises because many professors have a false sense of Reading Days as some utopia where thousands of students spend their days off basking in the glory of chapter after chapter of text. But instead, students bask in the glory of "Simpsons" reruns, 10 hours of sleep a night and mom's apple pie. This bliss is then crushed immediately upon returning to the University, when students realize that they have two midterms they were supposed to be studying for when they were watching "General Hospital."
It's obvious that students would be better off if they actually read during the Reading Days, but it's also clear that this will never happen. Something must be done to fix this problem.
One option would be to convince professors that no matter how great they think their students are, they still won't get any reading done during the break. Then professors should be asked to give midterms before the days of laziness instead of after.
But professors just can't change their schedule to fit the needs of we lazy students. Besides, many professors currently do give midterms before the break, so if all other professors joined in, the week would be too stressful. Something else must be done.
It's already established that students cannot change their ways even if they tried. The home environment simply is too unwelcoming to homework. Therein lies the problem. If something were done to keep so many students from going home, then surely more students would study.
This solution is to shorten the Reading Days to three days. Students only would have Monday off, and so would be less likely to go home. They'd be surrounded by more reading students, and so would be more likely to join in. Then this lost day should be tacked on at the beginning of Thanksgiving Break, which would give students more time to travel and relax, as that holiday is intended to facilitate.
I did more work than most students during these Reading Days. And all I did was write this column. And even then I waited until I got back to Charlottesville where mom wasn't always baking and the TV wasn't always blaring. This is a problem most students have, and something must be done.
(Brandon Almond is a Cavalier Daily associate editor.)
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