Keep Monday Fatigues!

Dear Dean Coole,

I heard that you want to ban fatigues on Mondays. “Two days off and the ability to fatigue the day afterward?” you questioned. You apparently don’t see a valid reason for students not being able to wake up for classes after two days of no required appointments.

Guess what? Our weekends are jam-packed with required appointments. Welcome to Exeter.

For athletes, especially on game days at schools hours away, Saturday goes by in the blink of an eye, with no opportunity to do homework. Having been physically drained from sports competition and crashing from their week full of inadequate rest, students understandably would like to sleep in on Sundays. But the most popular day for club meetings is Sunday, and those hour-long meetings add up very quickly, leaving a relatively limited amount of time to complete schoolwork for Monday.

You have the impression that the moment students are dismissed from our last appointment on Friday, we only focus on relaxing and socializing, leaving all our work for late Sunday night. This only reflects the deep misunderstanding of the average Exonian’s workload and stress level.

Do not try to blame this issue on poor time management or overcommitment. Parents, teachers and peers expect students at PEA to simultaneously excel in athletics, have a high GPA and become co-heads of the most demanding clubs. Naturally, it’s hard for us to find time for ourselves while constantly working and fulfilling commitments. We’re teenagers; even adults have trouble balancing their lives.

Moreover, you’re assuming that people only fatigue when they didn’t get enough sleep the night before and want to sleep in. Do you even know how fatiguing works? You have to wake up just as early, drag yourself to the Lamont Health Center and let the nurses know you’re not in the right mindset for classes. Students have to make a very conscious decision to miss class. Exonians fatigue when they are genuinely going through enough stress, personal issues or other problems that they feel going to class would only worsen their condition. Fatiguing is not merely a solution to sleep deprivation; it briefly lifts the burden off of students who need to take some time for themselves.

The option of fatiguing provides an ounce of comfort in a school where extreme stress and pressure are the norms. Few students fatigue in order to slack off—the policy simply provides solace in that we know we won’t be forced to face severe consequences for occasional mistakes and breakdowns.

I always appreciated PEA for offering us a few fatigues a term. Although I’ve never fatigued an academic class—since catching up on the work is arguably more tiresome anyway—the option indicated to me that the school genuinely wished to support its students. And yet when you said that you don’t think students deserve an occasional hour of rest after “two days off,” you shattered my illusion that the adults at Exeter understand and empathize with the student experience.

Exeter’s website says that the school prioritizes student well-being and holistic education. In reality, this school depends on its competitive nature and subsequently impressive college matriculation list.

The least the adults entrusted with our safety can do is let us know that we have the option to prioritize our well-being over one required appointment. The fatiguing policy sent the right message only because it was unconditional. If you start to add limitations to the policy, you’re not only assuming that students only fatigue because of a lack of time management and sleep, but you’re also adding to students’ stress levels and telling us that we should prioritize being present at one class over our long-term health and success.

I’ve heard that Student Council has been discussing the implementation of a mental health day. This is such an important initiative, as it will lift the taboo off from seeing a counselor, as well as give students the option to take care of themselves when they need it most.

But until a mental health day becomes a reality, students will continue to use fatigues for this purpose. All the pressures and stress factors in our lives don’t care if it’s a Monday; they could break us at any moment.

So, Dean Coole, there are, in fact, valid reasons why students need to fatigue on Mondays.