Kairos. The unspoken event of St. Edward. During the fall and spring of the school year, the senior students leave for this four-day overnight trip. What about the teachers and students left behind? This poses a couple challenges in the classrooms.

How do teachers handle the week? There are many different ways on how to take charge on the situation considering the many opinions people have on the subject. However, Mr. Drake and Ms. Rodman share similar points of views, and both give out homework during this week. Mr. Drake explains, “With careful planning and organization, both teachers and students should be able to prepare for missing class.” There is no reason for Kairos week to interfere with curriculum goals. Emphasizing on the homework situation, Ms. Rodman considers, “We have an entire year’s worth of content and curricular goals,” and further explains that, “We can’t just throw [it] out the window for a week at a time.”

Then we have to wonder if there is a better time to have Kairos. “It is certainly difficult to find an appropriate time period to fit in such an important event,” Mr. Drake supports. On the positive side, Ms. Rodman believes the time Kairos takes place is fine how it is. “I really don’t think there is a better time for it! At the top of 2nd and 4th quarters, grades for 1st/3rd have already been set, but we aren’t in crunch time for the end of the semester yet. We don’t have too much else going on in the school calendar.”

The most recent Kairos was the K68 and K69 groups that took place during the beginning of March 2019. It was not just 1 group, but 2 groups of students that left the school. These groups consisted of 46 senior males and 13 senior females with a total of 59 students gone compared to the 32 girls on the first retreat (K68). This means there were only 32 senior girls attending school— or so you would think. According to a poll, 16 girls attended school on Wednesday. By Thursday, 9 showed up, and on Friday only 6 stuck it out.

Taking these results into consideration, it poses the question of if the seniors not going on Kairos should be required to come to school in the first place. Senior Sophia Kopacz states how “it’s up to the student’s accord” and that the system of Kairos is “fine how it already is.” But senior Alexia Hernandez thinks otherwise. “We shouldn’t have to come. We don’t do anything work wise and you sit all day. It’s pointless.”

Even though there are many different challenges that Kairos week brings, Kairos should stay with St. Edward forever. Senior Aniah De Leon has this to say about being able to be apart of the retreat. “I’m glad I went. I got away from negative energies and I got to focus on my spiritual life. On top of this, I was able to spend time with my classmates and know them a little bit more before graduation.”