Scholios

By Amanda Holmes

Today is a faculty development day! And that means that there is no class. Woot!!! NOOOOO CLAAAAAASSSSS. Get crazy! No. Seriously, these days are very important for students’ academic development.

There are several faculty development days each semester. These provide students with a full day off from classes. This gives students the opportunity to catch up on assignments and sleep, and, most importantly, to have some leisure time.

The Greeks understood the importance of leisure time within the context of education. In ancient Greek, the word “Scholios” (transliteration) is the where we get the words “scholastic” and “school” from and it literally means “leisure.” The Greeks understood that in order to have a decent education, one had to have leisure time. This is something that is overlooked in most college environments today and SXU is no exception. Most students at SXU have other obligations outside of class, they work, or do sports, or some have families. And these days off from class provide a kind of break from at least some of their obligations. This break can be utilized to do things that we can’t usually do on the weekends because of all of the other things that those are filled with.

I’ve spent the first half of my off day working on upcoming writing assignments and reading some things I’ve been meaning to but haven’t had the time. Granted, some students probably wont spend their day off working on things for class. Maybe they will watch a movie or spend some time with friends or sleep for most of it. But these things too are an important part of a healthy lifestyle that is conducive to real academic work.

So, anyway, my point is that in order to be able to learn in class and to make the most out of our time at SXU as students we need these breaks from class. Werd.

Amanda Holmes is a senior philosophy major from Atlanta, GA. She is vice president of the Philosophy Club. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.