Blame Alice Cooper

Thank heaven for the journalistic supersleuths at Time magazine. They have really blown the lid off this whole summer vacation thing. "We associate the school year with oppression and the summer months with liberty," they tell us. Well, there's that and the fact that Independence Day falls squarely in the midst of those three months we call "summer."
But in real life, there was once a much more realistic concern that drove planners to create a school year that allowed kids to be free to help out in the fields during harvest time, and then get the fields plowed in time for the next cycle. Now some school districts give students "Ski Week" in order that they not miss out on any of that gnarly powder found in February. Then there's Cesar Chavez Day, and my personal favorite, "In Lieu of Lincoln's Birthday." As a teacher, I know that there is some drop-off in student learning over the course of any vacation, whether it is a day or a week or three months. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we won't be making any more rocket scientists if we keep giving these kids days off. The best place to learn is in school.
Well, mostly. There are plenty of things to do and see and learn over the course of a vacation from school, and the question is whether or not our kids are being led to those opportunities. Since the current trend is to cut back on the number of days in a school year because of our state and our nation's budget priorities, it seems odd that this question is being raised. Then let's keep in mind what happens to children when they are kept indoors for prolonged periods. Remember the way the minute hand creeped toward twelve, whether it was noon or three, lunch or recess or time to go home. There's a little Fred Flinstone in all of us, and when the bird on the pole screeches we're all sliding down the tail of our dinosaur and headed for the parking lot. Especially when you're a kid. Kids aren't getting paid to stay in their seats. They don't have mortgages or groceries to buy, so their motivation to stick with the program longer is diminished.
Of course, we as adults can all sigh and point out that those kids are getting something much more valuable than a paycheck: an education. That's not how kids see it. No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks. My son, spawn of a teacher, bristles each time he hears an "expert" suggest longer school days or extending the school year. He gets it. He got all the seventh grade he needed in one hundred and eighty days, give or take the odd field trip or stomach ache. For those who don't, there is summer school. Four more weeks of sitting in a room, watching the clock, counting the days and waiting. Waiting for September to come and having their teachers roll their eyes and ask them, "Didn't you learn this last year?"
"Yes, I did. Then I went on vacation and promptly forgot it."
As much as we try, times tables and phonics are not survival skills for many of our kids. Maybe we should be turning them loose on the fields for three months, then see how happy they are to return to their seats. It's a thought.