Reading break (or the opposite)

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2007 in Community | 0 comments

I had a discussion with a friend the other day about the idea of a “reading break”. Is it a break to catch up on reading, or a break from the same? These are the conclusions I came to after thinking long and hard on the subject.

The most common types of breaks we hear of are coffee, bathroom, lunch, and smoke. All of the above suggest that the purpose of discontinuing an activity is to facilitate another activity after which the break is named. There are also breaks that serve as a cessation to the activity after which they are named. For example, study breaks and breakfast.

Other breaks don’t fit on this current spectrum, like spring break, and halftime break. These types of breaks do not facilitate the situations for which they are named, nor are they a period of refrain or restraint from the same. Rather, they find themselves serving as an intermission in a specific space and time, and are named only for the purposes of differentiation and explanation.

So, is a reading break meant to be a break for or a break from reading? If the purpose of this weeklong intermission is for reading, then that no reading before or after this period takes place is implied. If one ought to take a break from reading, then why do we get assigned homework during this time? And surely “reading” denotes an activity to be carried out, not merely the circumstances surrounding the break?

This problem of astronomical proportions clearly cannot be answered on paper, so we must let experience be our guide. There are certainly those who relish the extra time to complete overdue assignments, or to prepare in advance for upcoming lectures. There are also those who prefer to get enough sleep, and also to make merry without the burden of class the next morning. Most would probably do a bit of both. And finally, there are those who have nothing better to do than to contemplate the philosophical reasoning behind reading break, only to realize that the break was over too soon and I did not accomplish anything.