When I was a school girl, nobody spoke of going away at Easter. School holidays started on Ash Wednesday to Easter Monday. Yet, we seemed to be pretty busy doing loads of different things. I adored going to my aunt’s house to see her how she baked for us what down in the Mediterranean is known as La Mona de Pascua which is a dough made with flour, sugar, eggs and salt, but this dough has to be kneaded very well to be left resting for about an hour before baking. On top of it, it is sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and decorated with hard boiled eggs. This is the traditional one and the one that is going to be eaten on Easter Monday to mark the end of Lent. 

However, and as living conditions improved, these types of Easter cakes became fancier and more sophisticated. No in vain in many regions by the Mediterranean are well famed for their chocolate making and patisserie. One only has to stroll around in the streets of any of these cities to see what masterpieces these pastry cooks can make.

In their finely decorated shop windows, one will see not only  cakes, as in the photograph above, but also castles, monuments, landscapes and all what we can imagine will have been crafted and carved in chocolate.

A godfather will present his godchildren with one of these cakes that the whole of the family will enjoy in mid afternoon. Where as, it corresponds to the godmother to present them with a palm on the Sunday that commemorates Jesus Christ’s entry in Jerusalem. It is part of the religious practice for these practising Catholics. On such a Sunday, they will go to mass holding their palms and bunches of fresh bay leaves. 

On Ash Wednesday, which marks the end of the carnival, there will always be what it is known as the burial of the sardine. It is of course a festive and pagan celebration, meaning that the joyous time of carnival is over and we’ll enter into the austerity of Easter. A ludicrous march of people dressed in black will walk, bellowing, behind the little coffin that contains a sardine to bury it in the country. There will be music as it corresponds to a solemn burial. 

Then, the processions will take place on thursday and Good Friday will be a quiet time until Sunday and Easter Monday.

The excursion on Ash Wednesday with our teachers in the country. Playing in the open until late in the evening. Watching mum or my aunt to knead the dough or going out to watch the Easter processions were part of our Easter school holidays.

Seventeen days. Seventeen. It could represent many things, seventeen elephants, seventeen donkeys, seventeen lollipops, or even seventeen chocolate chip cookies (yumm). But, in Hawaii seventeen seems to represent something greater. Something that many people are passionate about. Seventeen furlough days. Seventeen days of no public school education. Seventeen days lost. We’ve gone through two furloughs day so far, and already, there are efforts to put an end to those days. I however, as a student, do not think that it impacts us as much as some claim these days actually do. I have no problem with these furloughs (and that’s not because I just don’t want to go to school). I do believe that it matters whether or not our students are prepared and willing to learn. In fact, they are necessary for our state.

Let’s look at some background first, in order to put all this into context (oh so important context). On October 23, 2009, the first of these furloughs began. No longer is it “Aloha Friday,” it is now “Furlough Friday.” Hawaii’s public school teachers and 170,000 students were forced to take seventeen fridays off throughout the whole year. This has given Hawaii students the shortest school year in the nation. All of this, because of a nearly 1 billion dollar budget deficit in our state. In an attempt to patch up the leaky faucet, a 7.9% pay cut and these furlough days was proposed by the governor. It was ratified by teachers. This has ignited a flurry of protest from concerned parents, teachers, and even students. But, the fact is, that it as necessary. Everyone has been hit hard by the recession. Everyone from regular families such as mine to the big monolithic, overbearing government. Not doing these furloughs would have pulled our state further into the pit.

Along with these protest, there have a been a number of proposed alternatives to these furloughs. There have been ideas to take funds from other areas, to extended school hours, and taking less waiver or planning and collaboration days (which is probably an excellent idea seeing as we have a ton of these). There have even been lawsuits filed against furloughs. Quite hilariously, in a discussion in class about furloughs, our ultra left-wing teacher (pardon me for saying that) suggested to the class that the government should’ve “taken away money from the garbage men.” And being the amazing brain-washer that he is, the whole class agreed. That’s accounted for by our gullibility, I would guess. But, on the more serious side, I do firmly believe if the public outcry is loud enough and a feasible solution was proposed, these furloughs will go away. However, somewhere else is going to have to take the hit eventually.

As for the actual impacts on learning of these furloughs, I myself do not seeing that as being too much of a problem. I myself, as a student find my teachers rather than stagnating and doing nothing about this, increasing the pace at which class goes as well as the work load. I feel as if I still learn a substantial amount in all of my classes and that if there were no furloughs at all we’d still be learning the exact same things. The important thing is preparation. You have to go into your classes with the mindset of learning something and not goofing off. So many of my friends and classmates around me LOVE the furloughs simply for the fact that they don’t have to go to school. And yet, they still go into classes with the intent to learn (myself included). Surprisingly, others HATE the furloughs, as they do believe that they’d get a lower education. Yet, these people are the same people who consistently slack off in class and tend to goof off. Some even attended a protest against the furloughs, but can’t attend an after-school study session. These are the kids that would most likely be affected by the furloughs. One upside of the furloughs is that they make all of our students all that more determined to do better in school and work harder. However, as a collective whole you shouldn’t have to worry about kids learning any less than they would otherwise, whether it be a lot or more.  However, it is true that we as a state, do rank extremely low in the national standings, but where we’re concerned, our students will not be learning any more or any less. Added work and nudging from our teachers as well as the (newly created) open-mindedness of our students to learn, especially now with the furloughs will make sure of that.

In conclusion, while some people may protest the furloughs, nothing will happen until either the lawmakers step in to do anything, spurred on the by the public, or if lawsuits stop the furloughs by declaring them unlawful. In the meantime, we’ve gone through two furloughs so far, and I don’t think much has been affected. Furloughs tomorrow, followed by a slew of holidays, and planning and collaboration days, resulting in a three day weekend and a three day weekday (at the time of this article). How enlightening… In the meantime, I’d like a quarter cup of math supplements mixed with some fresh english boosters, thank you very much. On the serious side however, our education isn’t going anywhere as long as we’re going to fight for and work hard for it. The question is where will the future take us, as the furloughs are slated for two years. One can only hope.