Give Us a Break

Of all the inane chants Yale students hurled across Harvard Stadium at The Game, “school on Monday” might have hurt the most. While Yale, along with virtually every other college in America, allows an entire week off for Thanksgiving, Harvard students are required to be in class even on the day before this quintessential American holiday. Yale has it right for once—students deserve a legitimate Thanksgiving break and time with their families.

With classes on Wednesday and problem sets and midterms often scheduled for Thanksgiving week, many students face a difficult choice in deciding whether or not to go home. Students must often miss valuable lectures and sections and thus pay a price academically by opting to leave early. And even if they depart homeward, their vacation is inevitably rushed as they scamper from lecture directly to the airport on Tuesday afternoon, mutating what should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience into a distressing affair.

By discouraging students from going home for Thanksgiving and encouraging students who leave early to compromise their academics, Harvard unnecessarily promulgates an anti-family-friendly policy.

College already necessarily separates students from their families for extended periods of time: whenever a legitimate opportunity arises to return home, the University should accommodate the understandable desire of students for a respite from books and college life. Feelings of guilt or irresponsibility should not be the norm when contemplating going home for Thanksgiving.

For anybody who didn’t board in high school, college life can be quite an unnatural shock. Students are suddenly removed from their familiar domiciles and thrust into a world of independence, responsibility, and uncertainty. While living away at college certainly teaches valuable life lessons and helps prepare students for the future, Harvard does injustice to both students and families by keeping its students locked in classes when they should be unwinding at home, appreciating the important things in life during this time of gratitude.

Thanksgiving, unique among holidays for its non-sectarian nature and emphasis on spending time with loved ones, presents the perfect homecoming opportunity. Nothing should interfere with precious family time—just turkey, pumpkin pie, and football. Every American student can participate in and enjoy this holiday and appreciate a vacation, while international students can experience our unique national tradition by going to a classmate’s home.

Harvard can offer no reasonable defense of our meager and parsimonious Thanksgiving vacation. Tuesday and Wednesday lectures record infamously low attendance anyway, and the loss of barely three academic days is more than compensated by a restorative and relaxing Thanksgiving with your family at home. Harvard students may live away from home most of the year, but Thanksgiving is a time to be with family and loved ones, not in a dorm room in Cambridge.

Adam A. Solomon ’09, a Crimson editorial comper, is an economics concentrator in Lowell House.