1. What kind of stupid question is that? Why all of the sudden this year should mid-winter be cancelled? The kids all need a break! The parents all need a break from homework. Maybe there should be a 2 week span where the schools give parents a break from homework. Call it what you want… Mid-winter, mid-summer, mid-fall… It’s time to abolish homework for good and create curriculums where parents can focus on giving their children LOVE at home instead of pressuring with getting homework done! Anyone agree?

2. Kids need a break just like adults do. I personally think that it should be more than just 2-3 days. Now, I understand that parents may have difficulty with a long mid winter vacation due to work schedules. I am sure that can be figured out. When parents take vacation during the year work never seems to be an issue. I hear parents say “what am I supposed to do with my kids when they have no school”…..um…. BE PARENTS. Give them the best time you can. Revitalize their spirits. Kids are not a burden. Kids are precious. #kidsmidwinter

3. Of course there should be mid-winter vacation! Besides for the students and parents needing a break, the teachers definitely need time to rejuvenate themselves so they don’t get burnt out. From past experience when I come back from mid-winter break not only am I more enthusiastic about teaching but the students are also more attentive! So yeah WE NEED MID-WINTER VACATION!!!!!!

4. The problem is for the working people. Midwinter vacation is great for those who teach because they just stay home with their kids. For the working people we have to pay on top of tuition to send the kids to a midwinter day camp. That’s like paying double childcare. If the schools feel midwinter vacation is important they should give a discount on that months tuition so we can pay someone else to watch our kids. Thank you to the schools who resume classes on Tuesday. This saves us $100 that we would have to pay someone to watch our kids on Tuesday while we work.

5. All that yay people have normal 9 to 5 jobs and therefor are but in vacation days on mid winter instead of when they need them like Yom Tov etc . Either do boys and girls or do none . The current system where girls have off and boys don’t os ridicilous it just messes up everybody . Especially now bais faiga has school tuesday and most girls schools don’t . It needs to be streamlined . I also think lot of people can’t afford financially to take off and to spend money to keep kids entertained . So maybe an I school mid winter with games and plays etc and some learning for boys but no pressure fun in school so parents can work and kids get a break and guys in kollel don’t have miss seder to watch half their family’s etc. As far as the teachers they have plenty of off more than any other field in the world Probally . Two months summer , sukkos, pesach , and all Yom Tobin plus chol hamoed( which working people don’t have ) . If they need more time off let them switch fields

6. Mid-winter break is a bad idea. The kids get off for Chanukah, and snow days and purim, and there’s no reason to add stress to the parents who have “real” jobs, or to the good yungerleit who now have to take off from their Sedorim. (Btw during midwinter vacation the bais mederesh is almost empty.) and it’s also not a big idea for the kids to actually learn something for a change.
   So whoever’s “wonderful” idea this was should end it.

7. Of course there has to be mid winter its very nice that the people making this vote are out of school but when u were in school u wanted vacation and these kids aren’t different. And teachers need a break as well to spend time with the family and take care of personal needs.And for the parents that complain what cud I do with my child I feel bad for u that ur kids are burdensome instead of Yiddish nachas

8. We never had mid winter break when we wre growing up. We had off for Chanukah and Purim, that was enough over the winter. We don’t beleive in it, neither do most michanchim. It causes unnnessisery pressure for those that can’t afford it. It also causes parents to have to take off from work thus losing pay and or sick days. With the amount of times parents have to be home over the winter for doctor appointments for children, we should abolish this silly NEW minhag.

9. why isn’t chanuka vacation considered mid winter break? they got off for Chanuka. they will be getting off for purim soon. snow days… what, kids can’t learn for a month or 2 without having vacation? everyone agrees that kids need a break from school and parents want to spend time with their family. We do that plenty of times a year – Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkos (week and half) Chanuka, Snow days, Purim, Pesach (another week and half) Shvuos, 2 months in the summer… why don’t we give the kids some school for a change so they can learn something! as you can see, no one has issue with spending quality time with their kids many times during the year. They just don’t like it when schools invent new off days…

10. Skip mid winter. Keep them in school and maybe the schools should organize trips for those kids. Let them have organized fun. School trips in this town are almost non-existent. That has to change. Let the teachers have off and let parents volunteer to chaperone-and they’ll go free of charge. Perfect idea!!

11. I’m a Rebbi here in town the Kids are really looking & are so excited about vacation!! Best part is when my boys my students return after Vacation they laern so great it’s like a new Z’man it totaly worthwhile!!!

12. There is a recent trend among boys schools to cancell all or some of this vacation. Suffice it to say, if the profesionals in the field of chinuch are moving in this direction, your question is obviously answered

13. 1) Kids need a break
    2) When girls have off and not boys, the boys feel resentment and do not accomplish much in school
    3) Boys have school every single day from Succos until Pesach without a break. Chanuka weekend (Fri. and Sun.) is not a real break for anyone
    4) Teachers, especially Rabbeim do not have a day off for six months straight, which is absolutely ridiculous.
    5) Teachers are expected these days to be sensitive oh so sensitive to the children’s needs and feelings. Teachers and Rabbeim are expected to understand the challenges and nisyonos of today’s boys and girls. We are told to create a loving caring environment, to talk about ahavas
    hatorah, the beauty of yidishkeit, to be soft and easy when a child misbehaves, to understand their challenges and not to discipline etc… But, when a teacher or Rebbi says that the children’s schedule is too demanding, their days are too long, there are not enough breaks, all of a sudden we are hit with complaints such as above… Hey, you can’t have it both ways folks!!
    6) Many working parents take vacations without their kids during the school year and are babysat in school (very often creating disruptions in their learning and behavior while they are farmed out to relatives while parents are away)
    7) Every school has significant breaks during the year
    8) Teachers in every other school are paid significantly more than in our schools, and no one complains that they shouldn’t have a normal break every so often. People who complain about their tuitions have to realize that private education costs money. If they want free education they can send to public schools. Just like an esrog costs money, and cholov yisroel milk costs money, and flanken for shabbos costs money, so does educating your children. Don’t demand that teachers give you a free service just because you have a hard time with the cost. Your work and learning schedule is disrupted by yomin tovim and that is part of living a frum lifestyle, so does having children and taking care of them, sometimes it disrupts your work and leisure schedule, so sorry, but that doesn’t mean the schools and teachers have to provide you with a free service. If you want to complain there are plenty of addresses to log your complaints, but don’t expect the schools to be the ones responsible for your choice of living a frum lifestyle.

    Enjoy your kids, and we will do the best we can to provide them with a wholesome loving quality education and school experience! But if you kvetch and complain and expect a free ride, it will be quite difficult for everyone…

14. A rebbi in town with internet?? What yeshiva pls.

15. Of course kids should have vacation!!!! They work all day for hours week after week, they need a break and I’m sure they come back to school refreshed !!
    They deserve it!

16. Kids need off just like adults. My persoal opinion is that the yeshivas here are way too stressful even with mid-winter. I say more vacation and more relaxing for the kids!

17. to “working”
    many teachers pay full tuition! I am a teacher paying full tuition and enttertaining my kids for $100+ daily for mid winter activities. dont assume things.

    to “clear mind”
    what are you inssinuating when you write “real” jobs? teaching is the just as “real” and prob harder than another’s 9-5 office job. but if the ppl with”real” jobs as u put it, have it so hard….then perhaps the few days they take off to spend with their kids, will be good for them as well!!

18. *entertaining
    *insinuating

19. My school cancelled mid winter this year, so me & all kids in my class are FUMING at that. We need a break!!!

20. 1. Boys and girls should have off the same time if there is going to be mid-winter
    2. Give Friday-Sunday, My son’s Yeshiva has Yeshiva on Friday, We cant even go away for shabbos!

21. In my personal experience the vacation is beneficial for my kids. The boys actually need it more then the girls because their school is much more demanding and they typically have much more homework.

    The thing I don’t understand is that all schools have assured going to a certain warm weather state.

    Prior to my kids becoming school age we went away twice for winter vacations.I work long hours and barely see my kids during the week these vacations were beneficial just to spend more time together as a family.

    Since my kids became school age we have not gone. Not sure why the schools assured it, maybe there was something going on that i am not aware of, but like any place anywhere the vacation cam be done properly with out any issues.

    If it was done so people who can not afford it don’t feel bad, that in my opinion is misguided. I wasn’t always able to afford it. Going up I was not able to afford it, but I never resented those who could.

    It is a fact of life that certain people could afford things that others can’t. The mentality that people think that everyone is “entitled” to the same things, that creates problems.

    The sooner children learn this lesson, the better off they will be.

22. My daughter is upset that she cant go to school. Since I work, she will not be going snow tubing – its actually boring for her. Thank you BF for having school on Tuesday!

23. The kids and teachers need a break and especially the boys! I do think Tuesday should be back to school like Bais faiga has done and let’s try to curb the pressure of what to do and where to go. Just relax and enjoy!

24. I don’t want to hear about teachers “NEEDING” a vacation. Which other job on planet earth gives of 11 weeks in the summer?

    When a school makes a decision on whether or not to give school on any particular day (be it midwinter, close to the chagim, summer etc.) they should have the children’s (& ONLY the children’s) best interest in mind. Not the parents, teachers or janitors.

25. there are some hard working people in this town that can’t afford to take off add. days bet the kids being sick…..so my kids need to be set up by a mid winter camp that they are not happy about but have no choice I don’t understand why the girls get off they have every sunday to rejuvenate and spend family time and the boy’s could use a sunday here and there but what can I do?????

26. To tls
    why do you start these polls? All you do is get people angry and vent to the air and its not changing anything.

27. That’s the point

28. how often do they need a vacation? they just had a long weekend over Chanuka, soon it’s Purim then Pesach. And summer break keeps getting longer and longer.

    When I was in the Cheder there was no such thing as midwinter vacation and summer break was 5 weeks (From the last week of Tammuz till Rosh Chodesh Elul)

    I do agree that there’s too much homework though. My son comes home close to 6:00 and by the time he finishes homework and supper he has almost no time to unwind before bedtime.

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