Early. Release. Is. Not. Optional.

I have no idea how long ago it was that humans first popped up on planet earth (probably a few hundred years at least), but I feel like we’ve made a fair number of medical improvements from then to now.
For example, we no longer let leeches drain people of their blood and then proclaim them cured of whatever disease they had (though in a morbid sense the dead are cured).

We figured out how to set broken bones, cure the common cold, etc., etc.

We also figured out that hey, you know Jane who lives thirty miles down the road and gets really nervous? Turns out she has anxiety! And we have ways of easing her symptoms!

Which is all well and good, except for the fact that we don’t have Early Release Thursdays anymore, and they were the only thing keeping my school-triggered depression from completely destroying my entire life (there’s only the BAREST amount of exaggeration here).

Those bad boys were the STAPLE of my public school experience. I RELIED on them to cram in studying before finals, a big test, a nap, and now they’re GONE.

I understand that we have to make up for the ridiculous number of snow days we had, but why not just throw in another virtual learning day (wink wink shoutout to all the teachers that assign a reasonable amount of work) and be done with it?

The whole point of ruining early release (and coincidentally everything I know and love) was to avoid making us come in for another full day of school, but an extra 10 minutes of class really isn’t going to provide the same effect in the end. Teachers can’t exactly cover a new topic in a coherent and effective way in that time, so now we’re all just stuck in the rather awkward position of not accomplishing anything while pretending we’re hitting our stride. It’s not a great look.

The district thinks its the best idea they have, so I guess we can try it, but my money’s on at least one person (me, it’s me) losing everything over it.