I love summer, it's my favorite season. Jumping in the pool on a hot summer's night for a night swim; laying in the hammock reading a book while the sun beats down; heading to the beach and swimming for hours in the salt water; not having to remind my younger son to do his homework; not having to eat breakfast with my 2 kids and my husband...
In the summer, I work, but my 2 kids are off from school and my husband, a teacher, is also off. So I get to have breakfast in peace and freaking quiet. No arguing about why there's no more lunch meat or rolls for the lunch they should have packed the night before. No yelling about who's using the hot water and causing a cold shower for someone else. Just me and Olive, our one-eyed, 11-year old dog. Olive gives no grief in the morning. She's just happy someone is feeding her.
Anyway, I get it. Summer is good. I almost feel like I'm betraying my favorite time of year with this post. But, 10 to 12 weeks off from school in the summer is not good. It might be fun, but it's not something that is is good for public education. Some kids get to do amazing new things during this break. Many don't though. I think I'll be bold and say most don't. Many spend the summer wallowing with minimal supervision in front of a plethora of screens. They spend their summers loosing skills and knowledge that they gained over the previous school year. Without regular practice of the skills, the skills simply fade. And teachers waste weeks at the start of each school year reteaching stuff that students did know how to do before they ran out of school at the end of the preceding school year.
Why do we have this long summer vacation? There's no good reason. It is, as it is, simply because it has been. And change is needed.
What change is needed? Shorter summer vacations. Before my teacher friends start in on how teachers and kids need time to recharge, and the break is important, etc. Let's just say right now, yes, breaks are needed...kids and teachers require time apart. Teachers need time to re-energize. Schools need down time. But, not 10 to 12 weeks in one clip at the expense of our students' learning.
The ideal would be a more continuous school year with a number of 2 to 3 week breaks throughout the year, with no long summer break. To implement this, a retooling of the entire education, day care, summer camp, vacation, graduate school, etc. system would be needed. Too ambitious at first? Maybe. Instead, how about a shorter summer - maybe 7 or 8 weeks, and more days in each school year? This change is certainly better than keeping the status quo.
Don't envision yourself changing the system? What can you do instead? Here's the thing that everyone can do. When a kid tells you that they are heading back to school on August 15th (or any date) - don't groan. Don't sympathize with their imagined impending doom. Don't nod encouragingly and share how much you hated to go back to school. Be positive! Express gladness that they are getting educated. Ask them to share something they are excited about in the coming year. Share something about school or learning that you enjoyed. If that doesn't work (and it probably won't with a middle school child), guilt them - tell them about poor kids all over the world who don't even get an education and get to pick rice stooped over for 17 hours a day. Tell them they are lucky to be getting a free education that many in the world would fight to have access to. It may seem corny, but if we all started doing it...it might just be the encouragement that some students need to head back to school with a positive attitude for a change.
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