Per CBS News, Thanksgiving week is the most traveled week across the United States. Airplane ticket sales and highway usage (and therefore AAA calls) are the highest all year long from the dates between the Monday-Sunday of Thanksgiving week. Gathering with family to celebrate this day is and has been a titanic pillar to American culture since the origins of the nation.

And yet, most public middle and high schools in Seattle Public Schools give students just two days off. 

In Seattle Public Schools, only elementary students get the much-deserved week off which means the moment you enter sixth grade, you are subject to the atrocity that it is the two-day holiday break.

Seattle, a city tucked into the north corner of the United States, is full of residents from all over. Especially considering the city’s recent population spike, many families in the city do not have family members who live nearby. 

Therefore, to visit family, extensive time must be taken to fulfill travel requirements, whether that means flying or even driving. Since the first day of the break happens to be the same day of the holiday, that Wednesday before is most likely the least attended day of the entire school year, as traveling families value this great tradition more than a day of school.

However, all the congestion and chaos that is caused from the “Season of Giving” can be erased with a solution more logical than anything the school district has proposed this century: a full week off. 

For many, the rising prices of airplane tickets has driven families away from flying. So, a logical solution would be to drive instead. But considering the size of the United States, driving across the country can take multiple days. 

Because of our draconian break, that would mean you’d miss out on all the Thursday activities; unless of course you do what most traveling students do, which is to miss a few days of school.

But the district is not shy about giving out large breaks when the circumstances are “appropriate.” Winter break gives students not just a week for all the various holidays celebrated, but they give you an extra one too. So, if districts are inclined to attach an additional week, then why can’t they add just three more days for Thanksgiving? 

With seemingly no downside or reason not to, it should be a paramount interest of Seattle Public Schools to mandate a week-long Thanksgiving Break, as it would give traveling families significant time to prepare, and it would encompass the great American holiday.