School’s Out For Summer… Why is That, Again?
"No more pencils?" Boo.
The sign at the entrance to my son’s primary school reads, under the school’s name, “A First-Class Experience.” And it is, truly. So much so, that I wish he could stay there all year. And why not?
I love school, and my son does, too — he just finished first grade, and this year we hit the sick-day jackpot, with a total of… wait for it… none. The only time Daniel missed school was the day I took him out to go to his cousin Tara’s graduation ceremony. Just recently, he actually did get sick, but returned to school the next day (bless you, Amoxycillin). Just so you don’t think I’m so draconian a mom that I forced my child back to school the day after a clinic visit, (a) he didn’t have a fever; (b) he was medically cleared to go; and (c) he wailed that he wanted to go back. Gee, either he loves school as much as I think (he said, “Mommy, I can still learn things!”), or the prospect of a day home with me is not so enticing.
So yeah, he’s a bit of a geek.
School’s over this Friday. And though my boy is as much of an “I love school” nerd as his dear old mom was, he’s as thrilled as any of his classmates to embark on summer break, with the prospect of pools and beaches, bikes and ice cream, and, later in the summer, six straight weeks at the local YMCA camp (bliss for us both). It may seem contradictory to say that my child both loves school and leaps for joy at half-days, vacations, and holidays, but I don’t think it is.
I think the love of school is deep and real, and the joy over vacations, while also genuine, is also goaded into being by some social mirroring. All kids pick it up — that “no more pencils, no more books…” feeling — from each other. And if we moms are pushing the “thank goodness school’s over” vibe, well, that can’t do much long-term good, can it?
Am I alone here in wishing my kids were in school longer? The whole overlong summer vacation is anachronistic, based as it is on agrarian calendars. We don’t need the boys home in the summer to put in the crops (or take them out or whatever you do on farms in the summer. See! There’s something my kids could learn about in a summer school program — where our food comes from!) It’s also out of sync with the lives of working parents. There are plenty of parents — and some professional organizations — seeking to bring back more of a year-long schedule, both for convenience and for continuity. I just today stumbled on this piece in The Washington Post, by a writer named Brigid Schulte, extolling the virtues of her kids’ year round program.
She makes many great points. While we all say we looooove summer break, it’s just not the same animal it was when (cue dreamy back-in-time music) I was a child. Back then, summer was an endless idyll. We had a backyard, a quiet dead-end street, and other kids’ backyards, pools, playhouses, and sprinklers. We had the local beach, and the town rec department’s swimming lessons. I recently asked my mom if she’d ever considered sending us to summer camp. “Listen,” she said, “when we moved out of the city, we figured that was summer camp.”
But times have changed. As much as I long for this to be true, it’s not going to be the case that my kids will get together with the neighborhood kids to play flashlight tag all over the street and the neighbors’ yards, or catch fireflies in jars, or eat PB&J sandwiches and Strawberry Quick-flavored milk on the roof of Pattiann’s playhouse in the “woods” (a.k.a. the stand of scrubby trees at the back of her property).
These days, even stay-at-home moms have to invent activities and work the calendar to beat boredom and keep the kids occupied. And working moms? If you’re like me, you’re booking camp back in February to ensure a spot. Thank heaven for the YMCA, which is relatively inexpensive, close by, and a fabulous experience for the boys. They went last year, and I judged how well Daniel loved it by how dirt-, sweat-, sunscreen-, and S’more-smeared he was by the end of the day.
Shulte’s article describes her children’s extended-year school, and it sounds ideal to me. It’s not all sitting at your desk, drilling the multiplication tables all summer. Instead, the year is broken up by “intercessions,” when kids get to do fun projects that only incidentally sneak in the learning. (Hmmm. Sounds like camp).
Yesterday I brought my younger son, James, to the busstop with me to pick up Daniel. James’ preschool ended last week. When another mom asked why James was there, he said, “My school’s over.” I laughed and added, “Yes, but he was all set to go this morning — I had to remind him several times that he was staying home.”
To which my neighbor replied, “I can’t wait for school to end! My kids are over it, too.”
Over it? They are? Or is it just you?
There are some things I’m glad to be rid of, such as sifting through endless papers and projects in backpacks, and prepping endless lunches and snacks. But I’d never let that on to my sons. School? It’s a joy!
What’s your take on summer break?
[photo credit: Everystockphoto.com]
June 24, 2009 @ 5:04 pm
I already gave you my take on this, but I live in Montana where the winters are very long and cold. Summer is a seasonal celebration for me and my family. It was the same when I was a child growing up in North Idaho. I adored summer and it was a time of freedom from schedules, rules, and the freedoms from confines of a desk and the scent of paste and crayons.
Our home sits on a long, winding country road. Summer is still idyllic here. Just today my husband took the boys fishing while I stayed home making bean soup, catching up on twitter, and half watching silly tween shows on Disney with my daughter. We go horse back riding, swimming in the lakes and rivers, hiking. We enjoy lazy mornings and hot afternoons sipping ice tea. We garden and harvest our food. We raise animals.
If the school my children attend (private FWIW) were to try and implement some year long attendance program I would not only scream a loud protest, I would pull them out in a heart beat and go back to homeschooling them if the school board didn’t listen.
While I understand my life isn’t the same as the majority, here–and for most of the families I know here–we NEED our summers and I will not give it up.
June 24, 2009 @ 8:08 pm
Karma, I hear you! But here in the burbs, and with two working parents, a longer school year would be quite well-received. Well, by me, anyway! Thanks for reading — I appreciate your perspective.
June 24, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
i was never ready for school to end– or at least grade school. (grad school was a different story…)
Malcom gladwell’s new book has a lot of interesting information what how much kids learn during the year vs. how much they FORGET over the summer. one key to making sure kids are ready for the next school year (and can keep moving forward instead of doubling back to recover topics) is to keep them in school longer.
that’s in addition to how much it would ease the burden on working parents!
June 24, 2009 @ 9:21 pm
While I love summer (here in the Twin Cities, it never lasts long enough!) I do think it’s time to re-think the idea of ten or twelve weeks off from school. I know it made sense when most people lived on farms and kids were the hired hands, but that’s not the case for the vast majority of us. As you noted, most families are planning activities anyway. And, it really does a disservice to kids whose families can’t afford summer camps or other activities, and who end up not doing much of anything, except forgetting all that they learned the previous year.
Not that it needs to be nose-to-the-grindstone for June, July and August. Kids can learn and enjoy the summer months.
Karen
June 24, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
I guess technically, my son stays in “school” year round although they call the summer months “camp.” Last year (in between 2 years of nursery school) he had “camp” with the same teacher he got for Year 2 of nursery school. He was occupied doing fun things — more fun than I’d cook up certainly — and he got used to his new teacher who he fell in love with this last year. This year, we used his new school’s “camp” to acclimate him to Montessori school, and as far as I can see it doesn’t look too different, except that on Wed’s he gets to bring his bike and on Fri’s he gets to have pizza and water day.
As a working mom, I don’t know what I’d do if he didn’t go to school/camp — have my nanny extra hours? It’s not like I’m off on vacation. For older kids, I can see the allure of summer vacay — it’s a break from academics, to learn other cool things — like how to play tennis or ride a horse or paddle a canoe or visit a foreign country — that’s what I did on my summer breaks. Here’s hoping I can afford to provide the same summer learning experiences that my parents gave me. I started out this comment thinking I was all for year-round school … and as a working mom, I might appreciate that. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s a good opportunity for different experiences — like living in a cabin, getting to know other people from other places that you might not enounter in your community — that teach other lessons. We won’t be sending our son to sleep away camp for several years — but I loved those opportunities as a child and at least when he’s older, I’m looking forward to those breaks when he can learn something besides what’s in the books.
Norine
June 24, 2009 @ 10:01 pm
See, that’s just the thing, Norine: if I could do all those things with my son,it would be different. It’s not like I got a zillion lessons or took lots of vacations as a child, far from it. We had swimming, and spent maybe a week at a pokey resort in the Catskills each year, and that was it. But our experience with summer was rich anyway. And I had a stay at home mom. You and I, as self-employed writers, have much more freedom, naturally — I can cut back, then work more while the boys are in camp. I don’t have to punch a clock, or deal with a law-partner boss who doesn’t “get” kids out of school, y’know? Lack of support for working families is one of the thorns in my side…
It’s an interesting discussion, nontheless, and thanks for your responses.
June 24, 2009 @ 10:21 pm
Oh, I totally understand your perspective Denise, and think it would be great if there were options for both types of families. I just love summer break so much here. It’s a time for the family to really reconnect, and it’s soooo much fun.
I do agree though, the majority of the world is much different now and this option may not be best everywhere and for every family.
June 25, 2009 @ 8:11 pm
I think what most kids love about summer break is the break from routine: NOT having to be at a set time or having to do homework or having almost every hour of the day dictated. In reality, I understand that it’s not like that for most kids and most families. But that down time – time to just be and follow their internal lights and schedules — is, I think, what most kids crave. And frankly, I think that’s why kids today pull the “I’m bored!” think so quickly; they’ve never really had enough “nothing” time to figure out who they are and what they want to do.
July 2, 2009 @ 9:20 am
I live in one of those “agrarian” communities — for real; you can send your kids here to learn where food comes from — and I would welcome year-round school with open arms. I’m also a weirdo who’s in favor of school uniforms, so consider the source. Plenty of schools have implemented a year-round schedule to great success. From the kids’ perspective, even though I surely enjoyed my summers as a kid, I can’t really see much of an argument against it in this day and age. As it is the teachers spend the first few weeks of school simply reteaching what the kids have forgotten over the summer. The only possible wrinkle in this, at least here, would be that summers here are SO DANG HOT, and shade is nonexistent around the school. I’m not sure recess would even be an option.
July 2, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
As I understand it, year-round school would involve a lot of 2-3 week breaks. Wouldn’t that also pose a problem for working parents?
My teacher friends would never go for this–they enjoy their three-month break way too much. I’m torn. I see the benefits both ways. But maybe I’m unusual in that I live in a small town where summer is still pretty freewheeling for kids, and there are enough adults home during the day to make it “work” to have kids roaming the neighborhood.
July 23, 2009 @ 9:13 am
“These days, even stay-at-home moms have to invent activities and work the calendar to beat boredom and keep the kids occupied.”
I would be interested in your analysis of this. I don’t have kids, so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but it does seem odd that parents now are so concerned with entertaining their kids. It never would have occurred to my mother to invent activities for me and if I whined that I was bored, she told me to clean the bathroom. I learned to entertain myself.
September 12, 2009 @ 6:18 pm
Some schools in CA have a year-round calendar, which is nice if parents can work things out with their job. Specifically, it’s 5 weeks off for summer, starting around June 24, back on around July 29, off for three weeks in October, off for three weeks over Christmas and New Year, and three weeks off at Easter. So while it’s called year-round, it’s still the same amount of school days, but organized differently. Great for some, troublesome for others.
If you’re flexible, those off-season break times are incredible for visiting places or enjoying the local weather. Our best vacation memories ever have been made in October, consistently.