The first sentence of Hill’s mission statement reads: “The Hill School prepares young men and women from across the country and around the world for college, careers, and life.”

However, I will posit that the cult of endless work present on campus has prevented Hill from fulfilling its vision.

Any Hill student can attest to the fact that there is not much, if any, free time in their daily routines. If we observe the regulated lights-out time, as well as other pweriods reserved for academic work, each underformer receives about three hours of downtime every day, sandwiched between afternoon programs and study hall.

However, with the massive amounts of homework assigned daily, rarely is this a time to relax, reflect, and socialize; instead, students are compelled to spend it frantic and sleep-deprived, working on their multitudes of homework, problem sets, and projects. Study hall, with all of its two hours, is barely enough time if a student wishes to excel; in order to maintain excellence, students will often have to sacrifice their health and wellbeing: sleeping for single-digit hours every week, consuming excessive amounts of caffeinated drinks, as well as skipping meals in order to finish work are all things students have done, as detrimental as they are to a person’s wellness.

As with any cult, bizarre behaviors are perpetuated and celebrated, and the aforementioned experiences are not outliers.

Missed meals are laughed off, the hours of sleep (or lack thereof) are counted with pride, and the third cup of coffee tastes like bragging rights.

Without adequate leisure time, these routines become entrenched in the student routine.

Upon entering adulthood, bad habits, sleeplessness, and poor health can seriously break us, as we are faced with surprising stretches of free time.

In this context, making sound decisions becomes a vital skill, and Hill needs to prepare its students for this skill, not by restricting access to leisure time, but by educating and providing spaces in which students can grow, heal, and explore the vast knowledge present in the faculties, other students, and texts surrounding them.

Furthermore, the role that leisure plays in education has also been proven to be crucial, according to multiple academic studies: it is a key context for learning.

Without this context, students cannot process what they have learned in class.

The existential questions posed by a course like God and Free Will cannot be realized in the span of 45 minutes, and the value of literary works – the reasons why they are considered to be the greatest texts of humanity – can only be understood clearly with self-reflection.

Without the pauses of leisurely time, we can become too absorbed in the mise-en-scene of our everyday education and fail to see the montage, the sequences, the relationships of cause-and-effect that underscore human existence. Vital to critical thinking, these relationships are essential both in the vocational world and in life

Clearly, in order to prepare its student for adulthood, Hill should embrace leisure; after all, it is only a matter of time before the class of ‘18 will have to enter reality.