Spring break is a time for leisure, enjoyment, and a break from school. But no one really knows why we have it. Some would assume the purpose is to take a short mental break in the second semester of the school year, but the roots actually lie much much deeper.

I went around the school and asked many kids why we have spring break. Their answers varied from “To get a break from teachers” (Brock Bittner) to “To enjoy ourselves” (Pardeep Singh). Unfortunately though, everyone I asked was miserably wrong.

The true origin of spring break actually derives from the early 1900s. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, every spring there would be an overpopulation of ostriches on the Eastern and Western seaboards. Every spring, everyday citizens would have to hunt down ostriches, or else the ostriches would overtake towns and eat crops that were just coming into season. Ostrich overpopulation started to become a huge problem every single spring until President Theodore Roosevelt declared for The Great Ostrich Hunt of 1904.

A whole week was taken off in the spring to deal with the ostrich overpopulation issue. Ostrich populations were minimized and the country was saved. The Great Ostrich Hunts continued for the next 10 years. Everyone liked the week off in the spring so much that it stuck. Everyone now has a good week off in the spring because of the Great Ostrich Hunts of years past, yet no one knows about it.

I interviewed kids and faculty around the school asking them a simple question: “Do you agree with President Roosevelt’s decision to declare for The Great Ostrich Hunts?” Sadly the responses ranged from “What are you talking about?” (Dr. Brian Erskine) to “The what?” (Jacob Meyers). It’s a shame that even Lovejoy’s smartest minds don’t know about the greatest domestic policy decision in US history.

Although the Great Ostrich Hunts don’t come up in most people’s minds or even in school textbooks, it is important to know that the reason we have spring break is because of the great hunts. Share this information with your friends, family, and colleagues. Don’t allow the Great Ostrich Hunts to, yet again, fall into the depths of forgotten history.