Argumentative Essay: Revive Dead Day

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Revive Dead Day
Former VSU President William McKinney adjusted the academic calendar by reinstating Fall Break and eliminating Dead Day. He knew that the constant debate of whether or not to have the two items had been prolonged enough. Dr. McKinney said he believed that his decision “serves the best interest of most Valdosta State students, faculty, and staff” (Edwards, “Dead Day Gone”). While the elimination of Dead Day should have benefited everyone the students didn’t benefit as much as the teachers, so Dead Day should be reinstated to allow students an extra day before finals to study and relax.
Whether or not to keep such a day has actually been a serious issue for years at Valdosta State University, and the ultimate decision of eliminating …show more content…

This anxiety is “a psychological condition that involves severe distress before, during and/or after an exam, making it impossible for them to do their best work” (Strauss, “Test Anxiety: Why It Is Increasing and 3 Ways to Curb It.”). Test anxiety can cause a student to mentally shut down while they are taking a stress affiliated test. That is why it is crucial that students have Dead Day because they desperately need this break. Being a freshmen, I honestly do not know what to expect for finals week and that adds more stress to the existing equation. When a student is very nervous, “their capacity to think clearly and solve problems accurately is reduced.” said Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist at the University of Chicago (Strauss, “Test Anxiety: Why It Is Increasing and 3 Ways to Curb It.”). By this point in the semester, students have attended class for nearly a hundred days and are only asking for one day to clear their heads and de-stress before finals begin. Students barely have time to study before finals week because they have essays and final projects that are a large percent of their grades, due a week before finals. “We are scrambling trying to complete our coursework and study for finals at the same time,” said Zach Owens, a 21-year-old political science and business management major (Skelton, “Students Push Universities to Enforce Finals Week Policies.”). Students are in work overload at the end of the semester and they are only asking for twenty-four hours.. Some students have six classes and are already carrying more than the average work load. It is not a good idea to take these exhausted workaholic students right into finals that they haven’t even been able to truly study

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