It's Monday again and a pleasant enough return from a 3 day weekend. No, not one of those 3 day weekends that the whole world gets like Labor Day or Memorial Day, just a weekend when it really started on Friday, because out of town guests were here to be entertained, and ended at the usual time because said guests left on Sunday, leaving the rest of the day to Babs and I. This rest of the day involved decompressing from the visit, a lunch out, the purchase of groceries, a nap, a movie on DVD, and True Blood in the evening. There are a couple of slackers on boats in Streeterville Bay today, but for the most part it's nose to the grindstone once again, for one and all, this 3rd day of August. It's currently 83 degrees and humid under mostly cloudy skies at the lakefront.
Speaking of noses to the grindstone, I recently noted on a posting on Facebook by my niece in Texas that her oldest child is starting to Middle School this year, and he started back to school week before last. I know what you're thinking. "In July? How can this be R.D.? (How quaint. A rhyme.) Well, R.D. took the time to ask that same question of the niece. As it turns out, the niece's son, (That would be my great nephew, I think. Or at the very least a pretty good nephew.) goes to one of those reformed, "year-round schools." These schools get a month off in the summer and then go back to school when other students are still out for the long summer vacation that we adults all fondly remember.
Now mind you, these kids get the usual breaks that we all remember. They get time off for Christmas and New Year's. They get time off for a Spring Break. They just go to school at times in the summer when we are all accustomed to having kids out of school. The flip side is that they also get short vacations at weird times, like in October. It just depends on when their quarters end. Is this good? Is this bad?
The idea is that with less lengthy vacations from school, (You do know that they're not really going through their summer reading lists, don't you?) there will be less knowledge and skill loss caused by disuse. Frankly, the real reason for the current mainstream system is based on the fact that our country was once a primarily rural, agricultural nation. Families needed the kids for work in the fields in the summers. Labor Day until Memorial Day for school seemed to work. Memorial Day until Labor Day was for kids working on the farms with the parents. (People in those days weren't as concerned with child labor issues as we are. They were really dirt poor.) This schedule became institutionalized in America. Now we find ourselves in the 21st century where that makes very little rational sense any longer. Year round schools make a lot more rational sense.
The trouble for me is, that as an educator in inner city schools where there are a great many challenges that wear you down, I have become accustomed to having long summer vacations to recuperate. I like long vacations where I can ride my bike, go to baseball games, hang out, and get a sun tan. I return to school in the fall ready to face another year's challenges. Year-round sounds sucky to me, and to a great many other educators who are also accustomed to having long vacations in the summer. Are we positioning ourselves for the best option for the kids? Possibly not. Are we willing to change for the benefit of the kids being educated? Again the answer is possibly not. Inertia, and the way things have always been done are getting in the way of thinking about what actually might be best for the education of kids in public schools.
I suppose I could get used to a vacation in October, to a little longer vacation in the spring. I could get used to having moments for recharging the batteries in all 4 seasons. Reforming the schools to go year-round really means the same number of days and hours in school. It just means that the breaks between terms is much shorter in the summer and much longer at other times. I really need to look at the data on gains from going year-round versus traditional schedules, but maybe it's something I could live with.
After all, I might like an opportunity to go to Michigan in the fall for the leaves changing. I might like a couple of weeks at the beach in the spring. For that matter, a full month in the summer is a lot for most Americans. Most Americans get 2-3 weeks vacation total in the year, plus a few scattered 3 day weekends here and there. Educators get the 3 day weekends plus a long vacation in the summer, plus a couple of weeks at Christmas, plus a week in the spring. Out of self-interest I say, "Keep it the way it is. I have a good thing going here." If I look at it from the outside, objectively, I have to admit that year-round school might not be such a bad thing for me, and it looks like it might enhance the education of the kids I'm actually trying to teach.
Now if we can deal with the number of days per year that kids actually spend in school. That's a whole 'nother issue. Happy Monday boys and girls.
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