Harry Bruce Labour Day

“Labor Day was like a sniff of the woods or a glimpse of the sea before they lead you down to the dungeon”; those were the first words that Harry Bruce used to describe Labor Day in his article, Labor Day is a Dreaded Bell in the Schoolyard of the Mind. With nothing more than the title, the author’s position is evident, he is completely opposed to this statutory holiday.

Bruce expresses his opinion very clearly and very bluntly. Although the article was titled to be predominantly about Labor Day, I felt that the author expressed his dislike for school more profoundly than his dislike for the holiday. He states that he despised school very much, referring to it as “psychological malteachering” and “a house of despair in which big tyrants tormented small victims”. …show more content…
He claims that “Labor Day is a Bummer” and that it is “the stairwell to an eon of misery”, I do not fully agree with this. I find that Labor Day is indeed a pointless holiday, since most stores are closed that leaves no place to go, it gets quite boring simply sitting around at home ensuring that everything is in order for the new school year to come. It is also a very useless day for those schools that start school the week before Labor Day. I spent three years within the French school board; they are one of the school boards that begin the week prior and Labor Day always felt extremely awkward and unnecessary. I would have just begun to get in the swing of things, adjusting to the school routine until suddenly a day off appears on the second week of school. However, the points that the author makes are invalid. He claims that Labor Day made him miserable as it signified the beginning of the school year. In my opinion, this does not make sense, had Labor Day not existed, the “misery” would have simply been brought closer and summer break would have been a day shorter. This same argument can be made when the author claims that Labor Day is the reason that his friend, a high