'The case against summer vacation'

No, I get that. It wasn't so much the kid as the parent I was wondering about. Like how do you get to the point where you just figure they're fine? and what if you're wrong?

 

You never figure you are just fine. You worry and worry and worry every second of their life, from what I hear. Mine's only 11 months and sleeps next to our bed, but I still get up to check on him several times throughout the night.

If you're wrong, one of two things will happen:

1) You will be haunted for the rest of your life.

2) You will understand that it was tragic, but being a parent is about balancing the twin duties of keeping your child safe and training them to be a competent adult, and the latter will always carry risks.

Most likely, you'd feel some combination of both, depending on your temperament.

I don't agree with everything the author says, but here's a good blog on the subject that I follow: http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/. The basic idea is that parents fear the wrong things. They watch too much TV news and start seeing abductions around every corner.

 

Didn't you guys see Finding Nemo?

 

I agree.

I can recall forgetting a lot of stuff during the summer months and I hated those first few weeks of review during the return.

 

My 13-year-old has summer vacation. He also has a shit-ton of math homework he has to turn in on his first day at school (it counts toward his grade), and summer reading he has to do. And this is a school district that, based on standardized testing, would be seen as very average.

He's hardly overwhelmed, but he's not getting three months without school stuff, either.

 

Three months off? thats right you fuckers down south were spoiled. In Canada we only ever got 2 months off for summer.

I have a feeling though the biggest problem on changing the system would be trying to convince the teachers and their unions to get off their lazy asses and work, you know, year round like the rest of the world.

 

What a crock of shit calling teachers lazy. If it's so easy, go do it. We all make choices, I assume you are university educated, there is nothing stopping you from being a "lazy" ass teacher.

 

I wouldn't mind a system somewhat akin to the British academic year with a few weeks on, a half term (one week off) then two weeks off at the end of a term. Then there's a six-week period between academic years.

In response to Beef03's ridiculous accusation of teachers, my stepfather teaches at a university, and I don't know if I've ever known someone more dedicated to a non-journalism job. Even when he's not teaching during summer sessions, he's still going in to work.

Next time, try knowing something about what you write before you make a total ass of yourself. :

 

Big difference between University Prof and someone K-12, which is more where my over the top comment was focused at.
My mom was a teacher and I have many friends who are teachers. Sure lazy ass may have been a little harsh. There are certainly those that work hard and I have the utmost respect for them, especially to have to deal with the kids of today. I however know far too many that as soon as they get their tenure they coast. Tits on a boar. In the first three or four years of their career they will work harder than they will for the rest of it combined.
Two months holidays in the summer to start plus one or two weeks in the spring, and two over Christmas, plus judging by my brother's high school schedule -- 12 years younger than I -- a week that is getting closer to four days a week than five -- sure there's professional development days in there but they can't count for all of them.
So yeah, am I a little jadded by the insistance that we must bow down at the feet of all teachers, sorry I'll pass. I know far too many useless ones.

So to talk them into more work when work days are decreasing -- I wouldn't hold my breath. Maybe that would have been the better way to put it.

 

Then let the lower income kids go to school year round. Everyone else will end up in private school , summer on Nantucket or the South of France and all will be right with the world.

 

Maybe some are. But one I play tennis with just retired in her mid-50s with a final salary of $77,000.

And now she has pension and the chance to sub at her convenience.

Three other friends of mine dropped journalism in their early 30s and became teachers. How many other professions can one seamlessly ease into like that? Or to put it another way, say a teacher friend of yours in her 30s wants to become a journalist. What are her chances of 1) finding a job, and 2) finding a better-paying job?

 

$77K only seems whopping because we are viewing it from the perspective of our $30K pittances. In most of the white collar world, $77K after 30 years is a joke.