I want my mid-fall semester break back!

Growing up in California, we got a day off from school every year in October for Columbus Day, a national holiday celebrating explorer Christopher Columbus and when he first arrived in America. I’m not going to lie, on those days off I did not celebrate or honor Christopher Columbus in any way. I just enjoyed my day off.

Within the last few years, more and more people have come to recognize that Columbus obviously didn’t discover America since it was already inhabited by Native Americans. We’ve also come to understand that Columbus was more of a colonizer than a national hero. As a way to acknowledge Columbus’s wrongdoings rather than ignore them, Columbus Day has been removed as a holiday and day off for many schools, their students and instructors. 

Instead, President Joe Biden officially recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in October of 2021. Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been around way before a U.S. president recognized it, but that recognition was a big step in the right direction for acknowledging our country’s actual history. 

Strangely, I can’t remember the exact last time I got Columbus Day off school. I just remember it stopping sometime during my college education… and I want it back. Not to honor Columbus, of course, but because teachers and students need a break between Labor Day and Veterans’ Day. From Labor Day on the first weekend in September to Veterans’ Day on the 11th of November is the longest stretch without a holiday or break that students and teachers have to endure. November provides us with a fall break around Thanksgiving just a couple weeks after Veterans’ Day. December brings with it winter break for various holidays and celebration of the new year. In the spring, we get holidays in January and February with breaks in March and April. Even in the summer, we have Memorial Day in late May and 4th of July. Needless to say, 2 months without a holiday can be daunting for students and instructors alike. I especially find the fall months long and often a cesspool of nasty airborne diseases such as the common cold, flu and now Covid-19 variants. 

It is a bit strange to me that Columbus Day was a national holiday and day off school, while the more culturally sensitive, historically accurate, and equally (if not more) important holiday of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not. As we replace one with the other, it seems disingenuous to no longer have the day recognized as a day off. My perspective is also limited: perhaps continuing the day off but changing the name still has some problematic emotions associated with it for Native American people. I’m not sure, though I’d love to hear any perspectives on it. Interestingly enough, Fargo Public Schools get Indigenous Peoples’ Day off this year, although the academic calendar for the district itself labels the day “Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” which is strange. I’d choose between the problematic past and moving forward to show Native American people some sense of acknowledgment instead of squishing the two together. Still, I wish NDSU would give us a day off in October, too. This grad student and writing instructor needs a break.