Adult Boys

[LizzieMaine]

Easter is not a fixed date, and it's not up to US colleges to do so. Spring break is, of course, originally tied to the Easter holiday, and it's origins of sitting around the beach drinking are in the 1930's. During that time, resorts and cities in the south, particularly Florida, tried to attract tourism by hosting swimming events for college students during the Easter holiday. It gradually morphed into the spring bacchanalia we think of today. Of course, the idea of a chemically-induced sex party to celebrate the springtime is thousands of years old, hardly a modern phenomenon.

Of course, in the '30s only a tiny fraction of Americans were college students, most of them representing the moneyed elite. All the honest people were either working thru the spring or looking for work.

A culture that bases itself on the habits of the degenerate upper classes is only hastening its own doom.

 

[loosebolts]

This reminds me of something that happens way too often...new hires who ask when the company's spring break is, so they can see if it matches up with their friends'.

there is a hundred different snappy phrases to use to dismiss them from the interview " your break starts when the interview is over because your not working here." never went to cancun myself, i was at home reading scifi novels.

 

[sheeplady]

Here the local colleges/ universities stagger their graduation dates and their start dates for each semester so as not to overrun the hotels, roads, and other resources. (I live in NY state, which has a very very high concentration of post secondary schools.) Because the spring break is after mid-terms, just a little bit over halfway in the semester, that means spring breaks are staggered too. Lot's of the students go someplace for spring break, as the campuses shut down for the most part (some even totally shut down the dorms and all the dining halls so you have to find someplace to go unless you live off-campus).

Most students, however, aren't going to Cancun or Florida or anyplace fancy. Lots go home to their parents or another kid's parents. The students I have known that have done someplace fancy have often done so only for their senior year and it's a trip they've been planning for (and saving for) since they entered college. Of course, there are the trust fund babies who spend ridiculous money on all sorts of things, but they're largely the exception.

For the students who work hard and are juggling not only classes but extracurriculars and work, they need the break from classes. For students who rely mostly on themselves for paying for school it's really easy to get burnt out during midterm week, as a lot of jobs are super busy during that week in a college town. For instance, students who work at eateries are often asked to take extra shifts because few students are cooking for themselves during exams; work study students for departments often pull extra shifts because of demand for exam copies and materials, etc. This is on top of studying for and taking their own exams.

Professors are supposed to be assigning 2-3 hours of work outside of class for every credit on a given week, so if a student is taking the minimum 15 credits, they're looking at 15 hours a week in classes, 30 to 45 hours a week of outside work and labs, and on top of that a job(s). That's at least 55 to 80 hours a week of stuff. That's not even getting into other things students are expected to do, like volunteer work.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Professors are supposed to be assigning 2-3 hours of work outside of class for every credit on a given week, so if a student is taking the minimum 15 credits, they're looking at 15 hours a week in classes, 30 to 45 hours a week of outside work and labs, and on top of that a job(s). That's at least 55 to 80 hours a week of stuff. That's not even getting into other things students are expected to do, like volunteer work.

Gee whiz, when do they get to chase skirt?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Unfortunately, I've known people who have been on "Spring Break" ever since college.

Being that I live in a Spring Break destination and after seeing these students in action I shudder to think that these are the same folks who will be running things in a few years. Don't get me wrong but I like to have a good time just as much as the next person the only thing is my idea of a good time doesn't include binge drinking and being a jackass (both very popular Spring Break activities).

 

[Edward]

Well, teachers and professors do, but they're the only ones I can think of.

Teachers, maybe.... though the way I watched my mother work herself into the ground for most of the year, including "holidays", before she retired certainly didn't seem like it. Academia is another ballgame altogether - I get (an admittedly more generous than the private sector, but then I also earn a fraction of what I would have in a City practice too) holiday allowance as standard - often, as has been the case this year, I've actually been busier in work during the Summer break than when the students were here. If you ever want to wind up an academic, just say "So, I supposed working for a university you have fantastic holidays - four months off in the Summer, right?". Hilarity ensues. It's even better than "so, you couldn't find a job elsewhere so you went back to university?" lol If I had a penny for every time that someone had seriously asked me about these "fantastic holidays", I'd be able to afford to be on permanent holiday.

Easter is not a fixed date, and it's not up to US colleges to do so.

I wish the law would step in and fix it. It's an absolute pain the bank holidays moving like that... and it's not as if it would make any difference worth considering. Christmas doesn't remotely reflect the time of year the event it celebrates would have occurred either. For purely selfish reasons, it'd also make an awful difference to the number of years I keep finding my last class of the year has been scheduled for a Good Friday, and then I have to compete for a room to get it rescheduled. Grr.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I know of no professor who takes a spring break. It's a welcome break from lecturing, sure, and a good time to spend more time on research, but certainly not a vacation time.

Well, teachers and professors do, but they're the only ones I can think of. But it's often a jolt to the kids coming out of school that they're expected to work year round.

 

[sheeplady]

Gee whiz, when do they get to chase skirt?

To be honest, I don't know. I really think that's why the frats and sororities were so big at my last university. They're just an easier way to hook up and find easy drinking without investing any time into it.

Personally, I find the idea of assigning 3 hours of out of class work for a single credit to be *ridiculous* and I never did it when I taught. I don't believe in busy work. Some weeks my students had 15 hours of work for the week outside of class, but sometimes they had an hour. If they listened to my advice, they could have sailed through the class by working 3 to 4 or so hours a week. But if they waited until the last minute, they'd find that they were really stuck and needed to work extra and have a really long week sometimes.

That said, I knew instructors who had the attitude that their students were going to do the work, even if it was busy work because the students were in their class. They tended to be the people who believed all the students in the class came from money, drove BMWs, and were headed to Cancun for their break because they never took the time to get to know their students or read any of the information about the student body at the univeristy. I knew one professor who used to tell his students, "You know nothing about life, you should take a year off and travel around asia and europe."

 

[HudsonHawk]

I wish the law would step in and fix it. It's an absolute pain the bank holidays moving like that... and it's not as if it would make any difference worth considering. Christmas doesn't remotely reflect the time of year the event it celebrates would have occurred either. For purely selfish reasons, it'd also make an awful difference to the number of years I keep finding my last class of the year has been scheduled for a Good Friday, and then I have to compete for a room to get it rescheduled. Grr.

In the US, neither Good Friday or Easter are federal holidays, but are state holidays in several states, so banks and most public places are open, depending on where you live. And I don't know about the UK, but in the US, there is no way on earth the government is going to try to regulate religious celebrations like that.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I know of no professor who takes a spring break. It's a welcome break from lecturing, sure, and a good time to spend more time on research, but certainly not a vacation time.

I didn't mean it was vacation as in they got to lie around the beach with their students, I meant it was time off from classes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't know why Spring Break should have anything at all to do with Easter. It's not like these drunken wastrels are planning on going to church.

 

[PoppyHeart]

Professors are supposed to be assigning 2-3 hours of work outside of class for every credit on a given week, so if a student is taking the minimum 15 credits, they're looking at 15 hours a week in classes, 30 to 45 hours a week of outside work and labs, and on top of that a job(s). That's at least 55 to 80 hours a week of stuff. That's not even getting into other things students are expected to do, like volunteer work.

Haha, reading this is so weird to me, cause where I'm from, which is an Eastern European country, students in public - that is to say free, daytime universities - have about 40 hours a week of classes, plus all the other stuff you mentioned... I'm not trying to criticize, Lord knows I think they're given too much work, it's just so strange seeing someone complain about 15 hours.. If only I had that schedule in my uni days..

 

[Dragon Soldier]

It must be a significantly different course structure. A forty hour lecture week is an effective 9-5 Mon-Friday.

That would not be sustainable within the academic year in this country... There aren't enough hours in the day.

Then again, we don't have free tertiary education either.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I guess it's the way the Universities came up with to avoid having an official Easter holiday, in our laughable times where anyone will take offence at anything. "EASTER! You're imposing your religion on me, man." "Spring break at exactly the same time? Oh that's fine. Boooooze!"

Whatever, American relationship with alcohol is weird. If the damn fuzz are going to arrest mildly drunk people for peacefully walking home, or peacefully taking a nap on the walk home, they should police tailgating properly. Absurdity.

I don't know why Spring Break should have anything at all to do with Easter. It's not like these drunken wastrels are planning on going to church.

 

[PoppyHeart]

It must be a significantly different course structure. A forty hour lecture week is an effective 9-5 Mon-Friday.

Well, yep... there were days when I was at uni from 8 AM to 8 PM, and others when the hours were shorter, but the sum was circa 40 h a week. Try to keep a part time job at the same time... and the government would tell you 'either you're studying for free or you're working, your choice'. So 'free' tertiary education was actually just for those whose families could afford it anyway...

 

[Dragon Soldier]

Well, yep... there were days when I was at uni from 8 AM to 8 PM, and others when the hours were shorter, but the sum was circa 40 h a week. Try to keep a part time job at the same time... and the government would tell you 'either you're studying for free or you're working, your choice'. So 'free' tertiary education was actually just for those whose families could afford it anyway...

You would have 12 hour days here too, not common, but not rare either. Just that for the bulk of it you wouldn't be in lectures.

Here, you can work part-time or borrow money, on extremely favourable terms, to pay your way through University, Often it will be a combination of work and borrowing. Or you can come from a wealthy family.

Maybe some things are not so different!

 

[PoppyHeart]

Maybe some things are not so different!

Either way, you have to pay your dues

 

[HudsonHawk]

Well, yep... there were days when I was at uni from 8 AM to 8 PM, and others when the hours were shorter, but the sum was circa 40 h a week. Try to keep a part time job at the same time... and the government would tell you 'either you're studying for free or you're working, your choice'. So 'free' tertiary education was actually just for those whose families could afford it anyway...

To have 40 hours of lecture and 40 hours of non-lecture coursework, you'd have to be there from 8am to midnight, every day. I don't see that as being sustainable for any period of time.

 

[PoppyHeart]

To have 40 hours of lecture and 40 hours of non-lecture coursework, you'd have to be there from 8am to midnight, every day. I don't see that as being sustainable for any period of time.

The outside of class work (apart from labs) isn't really counted by hour here. It's more like lecturers assigning whatever arbitrary amount of material they haven't covered in class and believe you should know. Kind of like 'we've gone through chapters 1-2, exam will cover 1-10, be prepared'. You do have to attend all 40 hours of lectures though, or make up for it at some other time.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The outside of class work (apart from labs) isn't really counted by hour here. It's more like lecturers assigning whatever arbitrary amount of material they haven't covered in class and believe you should know. Kind of like 'we've gone through chapters 1-2, exam will cover 1-10, be prepared'. You do have to attend all 40 hours of lectures though, or make up for it at some other time.

It's more or less the same here, students are expected to learn on their own time whatever material is not covered in lecture, hours outside of lecture aren't formally counted.

Labs are counted as "credit", though a typical lab when I was in school was only one "credit", despite it requiring many more hours of formal lab time. For example, when I took optical mineralogy, the lecture was one hour, followed by a three hour lab, three days per week. The lecture counted as three credits, the lab as one credit. The only thing that made it tolerable was the beer.