Oh boy.....
I'm venturing into very dangerous, very sensitive territory here, so please allow me to qualify a few things at the outset.
First, as anyone who follows this blog knows, my mother was a school teacher for over 20 years. So I truly appreciate how hard teachers work and the mental and physical demands of the job. I get that. I really do. Teachers, I'm on your side.
Second, as a parent, I also understand the importance of family time; of the need for a contiguous, uninterrupted block of time to play together, vacation together or just be together.
That said, I'll throw this out there.
Why do we have summer vacation?
This question occurred to me as I read the increasing number of plurks and tweets from educators eagerly awaiting the end of the school year. I understand that. I felt the same way when I was a student (14 more days to go, 13 more days to go...), and would undoubtedly feel the same way if I were a teacher. But as the parent of a school age child, and as someone who has only worked in the private sector, I find myself increasingly confused by the uniquely American phenomenon of taking nearly 2 months off from school. I addition to being out of sync with virtually every other facet of our society, I'm beginning to think that this practice has disastrous implications for the cognitive development of our children.
I'll elaborate.
Being a lawyer just sucks. Really. You work all of the time. Even if you're one of those large law firm lawyers billing $500 an hour and making a kings ransom in salary (which is the benefit), the attendant cost is that you work constantly and you have to be reminded about your children's birthdays. I know there have been entire years where I did not take a week off. There was a three year stretch where I did not take a vacation at all. I have never taken two consecutive weeks off. If I took a month off, I may as well stay wherever I landed because I'd become irrelevant or get fired.
Here's a bit of insight from behind the veil. I don't care what employers say, they don't like it when employees take vacations. They really don't. I've huddled up with enough business owners when vacation requests come in to know that they might give you the Cheshire cat grin and say: "Have a really nice vacation (toothy grin on cue)." But what they're thinking is: "I ought to fire you, you thankless sack of [expletive deleted] because while you're busy hanging out at Disneyland with the wife and kids, I'll be here running the business that allows you to pay your damn mortgage. Yeah, have fun and pray to God that I don't come across someone while you're busy getting a tan that I think is better suited to do your job."
Two months off just doesn't work in real life. Not for anything. Until Congress made it illegal, women were getting fired for getting pregnant and having babies! (An extreme and awful practice by the way). My point is this, business is not seasonal. Life is not seasonal. The "real world" for which we are preparing our kids is not seasonal.
Three words for everyone. "Employee at will." Look it up.
Point #2.
If our kids aren't in school, especially Pre-K through 8th grade children, what the hell else do they have to do? Work for the board of trade? Really, what are they going to do? Watch video games? That's healthy. Play sports? They could do that and still be in school. Go on vacation with the family? Great. Take two weeks. Now what?
Right now, parents from sea to shinning sea are scrambling to figure out what they're going to do with their little bundles of joy when that final school bell rings. I know I am. And that's all fine and good for parents with means and options; they can send their kids to camps or summer programs. But what about the millions of parents who are struggling just to keep the lights and gas on? Who can't pay their mortgage or their rent? Free summer school is an answer for some; especially in Title I schools, but this is not a systemic solution available to everyone.
All that takes a back seat to the biggest problem.
The BIGGEST problem, in my humble opinion, is that kids get REAL dumb REAL fast during the summer. It's amazing how much of the stuff we just spent the last 10 months cramming into their still developing brains gets lost. After Christmas break, my son seemed to forget how to write his name. (So now time away from school does not mean time off from school--much to my son's disdain and vocal displeasure). We take this time off, kids get a great tan and then spend the first month or so of the next school year playing "let's catch up" instead of "let's push forward." The more I think about it, the more I think this whole summer vacation thing just doesn't make sense.
Yes, there should be some time off. Some sort of summer sabbatical. According to my friend and colleague Kelly Tenkely, the schools in her county take a three week summer break and three additional three week breaks throughout the school year. This seems to make more sense to me. Kids, take your three week break and then, to use my mama's words, "get your rusty butt back in school." Now we could (and probably should) change things up a bit in the summer. We could have a shorter school day. We could change the hours so we're not getting our kids up before the crack of dawn. (Who's BRILLIANT idea was THAT anyway?) We could allow the children more free time or the ability to craft individualized lesson plans. Perhaps we could also use this time to focus on subjects that get the short shrift during the standardized test driven school year such as art, music, and yes, sports and physical exercise. We could have school camps where the kids are learning, having fun and developing a stronger sense of community. This time could be used for meaningful, more deliberate professional development rather than those awful (and generally ineffective) in service days during the school year that many teachers seem to hate.
And finally, but most importantly, perhaps this could be a time where teachers are encouraged to experiment with innovative instructional practices, such as the use and integration of technology, because they’re not consumed and driven by standardized test prep. There's a whole lot we could do during the summer that’s different if we're creative and willing to think outside of the box. It doesn’t have to be more of the same.
So what do you think? Is a summer vacation a needed and necessary respite? Or does putting the brakes on learning and saying, "we'll see you in two months" do more harm than good? Is this really right for our times; especially in high-poverty communities with a large number of at-risk students where the school might be the only stabilizing factor in their lives? Sure, this time off made sense when most of our students spent the summer harvesting crops or helping out on the farm. But if I may, this is 2009, not 1909. If you were to poll most kids in inner-city public schools today, I suspect very few of them spent their summer shucking corn.
So is “summer vacation,” like so many other traditions in our schools, something that we should take a long look at and ask ourselves, “Is this really in our student’s best interests?"
I'm open here. I'm not dogmatic about this and I'm not necessarily trying to make a case. So by all means, let me know what you think. Am I off? Are there alternatives? I'd like to know. Because I don’t need to be right. But I would like to arrive, logically and dispassionately, at the right answer. Because a lot of what we’re doing right now just isn't working.
Kids first, remember? It's a motto I see prominently displayed in most schools.
So what do we do?
13, 12, 11….the final school bell is about to ring.
What should we be doing when that final bell rings to truly put our kids first?
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7 comments:
I will not fight with you ... rather kiss your feet. In South Africa we have a 5 week break in summer, a 3 week break in winter and two 2 week breaks mid-term - 12 weeks in total.
You suggest: "... perhaps this could be a time where teachers are encouraged to experiment with innovative instructional practices, such as the use and integration of technology, because they’re not consumed and driven by standardized test prep." If only teachers would do this! Then we could really make progress in making the use of technology a reality in our schools.
Not all American schools take a long summer vacation. Our two public magnet schools in St Paul, MN go year round, with 2-3 week breaks in November, February, May, and August. During the "intersessions" between quarters we also offer full day optional enrichment programming for anyone wishing to attend. We have been at now for 14 years and our staff and families agree with you that two months is too long to out of school. It does make it hard for teachers to attend summer professional development sessions and for kids to go to summer camps, but the few folks who find they can't adjust do have the option of going back to working and learning in nearby schools with traditional calendars.
While going to and working in school year round is not easy, considering everything from state reporting and test scheduling to fiscal year and budgeting, we believe year round programing is best for kids.
As a special education teacher, I have asked this question forever. Yes, my students get ESY, but half a day for 15-20 days? That's not really ideal either. You mention that it takes a month to get them revved up and review the beginning of each year, what about the month at the end of them winding down? It's really an outdated system, that is based on something that many students have no participation in - agriculture.
One of the big issues is that it will take a total realignment of the educational, and park districts. It can be done, but it wil take a lot of people to get it done!
I have a slightly different view, coming from a different experience and angle...While I understand your point about kids' brains basically going to mush from summer activities and inactivity of actual education...I also get tired of hearing teachers complain, while they get time off. I have a friend who works year round, deals with horrendous stress, and gets the same pay as a teacher, but with a master's degree. John Stossel (sp?) actually did a story on this, and it calculates out to an average of $80,000 a year, if you figure in year round; so technically what they get is pretty good, considering the time they get off. Most of the teachers he talked to couldn't wait to get out and take a loooong vacation, something a lot of regular year-round workers cannot do. No one said their job is easy, but neither are anyone else's. We all have it hard in our own way.
Now, what does this have to do with the kid aspect? A lot. I can worry just as much about the teacher becoming rusty, as the kid. Worse, the kids are taught the same stuff year after year, with little revision. What should we worry more about here? I think that's more the prime issue than anything.
Additionally, I come from a family whom accelerated while NOT in school. We were self-taught in our professions, and hands-on, trial and error at home allowed us to absorb information way better. Furthermore, it was much more enjoyable, because it wasn't shoved down our throats at 7 in the morning, while we were half comatose. It's a very ineffective format schools have. We expect kids to "just deal with it," well I can say the same for the teachers then. Fair's fair.
My experience included teachers whom rolled their eyes every day coming in, hating their job, getting nasty with any kid who had something to ask (isn't that what we're supposed to do?), and just wanted their paycheck and to get home. There was very little compassion. My solace was to GET home, so I could actually finally study, and only then did I actually learn something.
Add to that the fact that my life was severely enriched by my natural surroundings--I didn't just play mindlessly. No. I studied ants, grasshoppers, trees, fruit, tended to a vegetable garden (learned work, care, etc. and I wouldn't learn that if I had to go to summer school, now would I?), and tons more. I learned nature, and hands down, there is no way I'd learn that stuff sitting at a hard table with a book. Not the way I learned it. There is something to be said about getting your hands dirty, seeing, feeling, touching. Kids get to do this in the summertime.
It was also a solace for me because it allowed me a chance to breathe, after dealing with such horrible teachers. Most of them shouldn't have even been one. Having a degree is easy; being a good person, a good teacher, is a whole different thing. And 80% of the teachers I had did not want to be teachers; they just wanted a paycheck.
So, for me, summer was the answer, and probably the only reason I survived high school and got a diploma.
PS--For the record, let it be known I know there are wonderful teachers out there; I did have a few that saved me from the traumas I endured and witnessed in my school. Those are the ones I applaud...but then, oddly, I never heard them complain either. Perhaps because it *wasn't* about profit or summers off. I say shorten the days for everybody, so the kids' brains aren't mush--not just during the summer, but on a daily basis. I think this would lower the stress for both the teachers and the kids (and yes, I know they have stress; I get it), and actually be more productive; the kids would ingest more, and the education would stick better in their heads.
When Summer break had begun for me, I was unwillingly pushed to learn the Visual Basic 6.0 Programming/Coding Software (a 1100+ page book by the way) by the end of the Summer so called for my BETTER FUTURE. Video games were banned, I was scolded constantly for getting all A's and only ONE B+ and still not making the honor roll. In my opinion, the Summer break schedule is not bad, but not TOO productive either... It wouldn't kill a kid to maybe spend 5 to 30 minutes a week AT LEAST reviewing over their weakest or newest subjects. I think that we as students may find ourselves to rebel naturally to re-learning stuff we think we know, but it still doesn't hurt us to take a break from a good sufficient amount of education as well as continuing to remember that education.
What is the purpose of learning? Just cramming, if so, then there should be no summer vacation. But if the learning purpose is improve mental capabilities, then mind need time to absorb, and that can come through vacations.
Parents can play an important role in understanding what their children would be interested in, and accordingly plan their summer vacation. Here are some suggestions for your children this summer. Summer camps, Trip to a library, Swimming, Sports, Participate in Household activities etc.
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