When?

Let the countdown begin. Officially. There are four days left in this school year. Oh, and teachers have to work on Friday, cleaning up the paper and detritus from all the previous days before. It is this exercise in patience that shapes anyone who has ever stood in front of a classroom for more than a day at a stretch. There are plenty of us who started this countdown weeks ago. They even carefully carved out those days which were already weekends or holidays. Like the kids that we used to be, we want to know when the last day of school is.
As I explained to my son, who is currently experiencing a very similar sensation as the 2012-2013 school year trickles off into memory, there are a certain number of instructional days stuck in the year, in order to achieve the goal of a certain number of instructional minutes. No time off for good behavior, or if we finish that workbook and there's nothing left to learn in second grade. We're here for the duration. So we're playing out the string. That means more kickball. That means the art projects that were put off for the entire year because there were far too many other pressing issues now hold sway. That means there are, for the most part, more smiles. On the faces of both teachers and students. The hard work is done and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
After all these years, it's hard not to start flipping the calendar ahead a few pages and begin a new countdown: how many days left in summer vacation. But I'll wait on that one. I'll focus on the now.