Sacred Pause

I hope my students are having better luck at refocusing after this Thanksgiving break than I am.  I watched my son (a college sophomore) navigating his break with one foot in the family world and another in the end of classes/exam world and I wished he would have felt more comfortable jumping alternatively with both feet into both puddles.

We are entering our last week of classes here and while it is a great relief in some ways, calling it an end while having to rev up to get ready for what comes after it seems a little cruel[1]. The timing isn’t ideal.

Yet, we all needed this break. In the post[2] pandemic world, I feel like there is no way to avoid work and meetings and scholarship and everything we need to do unless it is a universal holiday. In short, there is no more “sacred time” in anyone’s schedule these days. I am on a bunch of committees that meet on Fridays. Evidently, Fridays are the new Thursday[3]. I understand why. Back in the before times, Friday was usually a freer day-sure you might have a class or two, but no one expected more than that and certainly nothing happened after 1:00 p.m. However, now that we can work from home (at any time--on any day—in any hoodie), chances are people are still more free on Fridays, so it is a good time for a group to meet.  I know that frittering away the resource of a relatively free weekday is not good time management. Our students know that too.

Back when I was in law school,[4] we used to make a point of taking a really long walk home from classes on Friday afternoons. We would put our books in our lockers and walk relatively unencumbered down Huntington Avenue, turn left on Mass. Ave, turn right on Newbury (or Boylston, or Beacon, or Comm. Ave depending on the season) and walk through the Massachusetts State House (totally not allowed anymore), out the back, down the hill, and home. We would stop for coffee, to look in a bookstore, and on one occasion to adopt a kitten. We put physical distance between us and the law school, and it was freeing and relaxing. Sure, we got up early and joined our books back at the law school the next morning, but that walk was a signal to our minds and bodies that it was time for well-deserved break at the end of a long week.

These days, I see students worry if they are not constantly working.[5]  But not of all that time is productive. Sometimes, students engage in repetitive busy work to feel that they have accomplished something and not squandered any time. I will absolutely admit that I take great satisfaction in crossing things off my to-do list even if I have just added them because I did something I hadn’t planned on. But the constant feeling of never being caught up or finished takes its toll on students. I think this break, albeit a poorly timed one, is one we all needed. Experts at the National Institute of Health (as well as many others) agree that taking breaks helps students to retain content and perform better on tests of their knowledge.[6] Allowing a brain to hold the information it needs for exams is something law students need more than an all-night study session. We all know that an all-nighter is never a good idea in law school. Students need to hold space for holding space.[7]

So please add, “took a well needed break” to your to-do list for last week, and then cross it out.

(Liz Stillman)

 

[1] That is also how I felt about graduating from law school a week into the bar review course back in the day.

[2] I really hope it is the after times for COVID.

[3] Could be a TV show title?

[4] Yes, it was the 1^st edition of the Bluebook times…not really, but that is what one of my undergrads guessed this year and I hope they understand where that F is coming from….

[5] Some should, of course, work more than they do.

[6] https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/study-shows-how-taking-short-breaks-may-help-our-brains-learn-new-skills#:~:text=However%2C%20they%20also%20saw%20activity,possibly%20facilitate%20rehabilitation%20from%20stroke.%E2%80%9D

[7] Yes, I did see the Wicked movie over this break, why do you ask?