Should our school have Mincha break? While there are certainly good reasons to have it, I can make a strong case for why school days would be better without one.
Mincha break is a half-hour break after Mincha. Even though the Mincha prayer only takes 10 minutes, we still have an entire 40-minute break in our schedule. According to Rabbi Yablok, we have this free period for three reasons.
First, it helps break up the school day into three parts: the first, from breakfast to lunch; the second, from lunch to Mincha; the third, from Mincha to the end of school.
Second, Mincha break give students time to meet with teachers to discuss school-related matters, as most students and faculty are off during these 40 minutes. Finally, it gives students time to catch up on work.
There are other good reasons for the Mincha break as well. It gives kids a chance to relax during the day, as they can chill with friends, play ball or go out to eat. As we all know, the day can be very long, and the free period after Mincha helps us get through the day by giving us something to look forward to.
Moreover, having a Mincha break also provides time for clubs and Chaburot to take place. If there were no Mincha break, valuable time that can be spent learning or doing something that interests you would be taken away.
Last, all students can use this recess as an opportunity to take their minds off of school and learning. According to an online study done by Learning Liftoff, breaks during the school day improve attentiveness, increase productivity and reduce stress for students.
Mincha break can be a really enjoyable part of the day because of the reasons above. However, I believe there would also be benefits to not having the Mincha break.
The obvious advantage of just davening Mincha without any extra break would be a shorter school day. This shortened school day would especially help out-of-towners such as myself.
Getting home earlier would give more time to students for assignments and studying at home, a definite plus for those of us who have a long commute. Another positive for out-of-town students is that doing extracurricular activities after school would be easier, due to a shorter day.
Athletes in particular would have their practices be much earlier,if break were abolished. Since their practices would be earlier, they would have more time at night for homework and would get better sleep; this, in turn, would raise their grades.
I think getting rid of break would benefit our school more than hurt us. Even though there are important and enjoyable clubs during Mincha break, they can easily be moved to lunch, breakfast or after school. The precious extra time that students would get at home without break cannot be moved.
As out-of-town students continue to make up more and more of our student body, TABC should eliminate the Mincha break and end school earlier to counter their long commutes.
I think that if TABC discontinued the Mincha break and ended school at 4:50, there would be a noticeable increase in the grades of all students.