All over the country, students start school on various dates. There’s a solid mix of students starting before Labor Day and some afterwards, with some of the earliest for 2024 starting around mid-July and the latest around early Sept.
In Hunterdon County, the North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School District was the first high school to welcome students back. These students started the school year Aug. 22, while Hunterdon Central Regional High School District was the last high school to begin the school year, starting Sept. 5.
Why are the majority of schools starting before Labor Day, and why are schools as close as 12 miles away starting on such contrasting dates?
English teacher Sarah Hall doesn’t have a strong preference on the matter of starting school before Labor Day, but expressed her desire to have all schools start the same day.
“My opinion is that our school should do what every school does,” Hall said. “I think that we run into a major problem if we have schools in parts of the country starting significantly earlier or significantly later than other schools…So my answer is not Labor Day as the benchmark, but just an agreed upon start date. If somebody has three, four, five weeks more of instruction time in different states, it could make one school’s test scores look better when really the kids have just had more seat time.”
Whether it be starting before Labor Day or after, students all over the country start at various times between the months of July and Sept. Without starting within at least a week’s time from each other, all academic performances can be rigged.
“If literally everybody in the entire country was going to have the same start date, then sure after Labor Day,” Hall said.
Why end summer early? The summer season doesn’t officially end until the autumn equinox, which frequently falls on either the 22 or 23 of Sept. This is more than two weeks later than the latest school start date in Hunterdon County. If not the full season, why not wait to give summer a final farewell until after Labor Day weekend?
Biology teacher Ms. Wilson has taught in many places throughout the world, and she explains why she is for starting school before Labor Day.
“I am pro starting before Labor Day because then it’s nice to be done before everybody else, before everything starts getting crowded, where travel is hectic,” Wilson said. “I’m trying to see the other way, to see what the benefit is, and it’s just that we get to have another week of Summer, but it just depends on which summer. Do we want to have one more week of this year’s Summer, or do we want to have one more week of the new summer, and I’d say I’m always looking toward the future.”
While it can be nice to get out of the building and kick off summer early, it doesn’t seem like a big enough advantage. The average high temperature in Sept. is higher than the average high in June. Why start break before summer has reached its peak temperatures, and go back to a cold air-conditioned building before we’ve prolonged the warm, sunny weather as long as possible.
Overall, back-to-school time can be full of stress and anxiety for students, and starting school when it feels like summer had only just started can cause students to feel overwhelmed.
Labor Day weekend helps give closure to the summer, one last hurrah and a goodbye until next year.
