Reading week is scheduled to fall over family day, and is intended to be a time where students can study for their upcoming exams. In the states, spring break is exactly what it sounds like. A BREAK.
This year, I have two midterms scheduled before reading week and two scheduled for the week after. I am also participating in a volunteer trip through Western, which means that I will not be able to spend my reading week studying, but rather, helping other people. Students also take this time to go on vacation, or even to relax with their families. How can a student relax when they are thinking about the exams that they have to take when they return to school?
Reading week is a study period, disguised as a spring break. If students want to actually take time to themselves, to take a break, then they are sacrificing their study time, and are forced to continue thinking about school on their break period. I think that reading week would be much more beneficial if it was an actual break, with midterm exams scheduled only before the break.
But then we face another problem. If all of our midterms fall before reading week, then teachers are forced to rush through their material in order to prepare students for midterms before the break. But what if the school pushed reading period back a week, and simply gave students the Monday off for Family Day? That gives students a (well-deserved) long weekend to spend with their families, and then also an actual break.
We know that university students are overwhelmed and stressed, so why not give them an actual break, instead of disguising a study period as a break.