Summer Vacation

I feel sorry for school-aged kids these days. Summer vacation used to be three solid months long. Now, you blink your eyes and it's over. In the days of old, pop songs kept track of when summer break started and ended. Alice Cooper kicked off the freedom fest with School's Out For Summer. The group The First Class sang, "Beach baby, Beach baby there on the sand from July 'till the end of September; surfin' was fun, we'd be out in the sun every day." The Happenings sang, "See you in September; see you when the summer's through." There you have it, right there in song lore; it's etched in vinyl--it has to be true! In my case it was approximately June 15th till September 15th. That, my friends, was summer vacation.

They used to have these clever marketing tie-ins signaling the beginning of summer like the familiar June sale called, Dad & Grad. See--the authorities originally designed summer to begin in June! These days here in Tennessee, many schools get out in May and reconvene in late-July, early-August. I am offended. No, the child in me is offended! The "suits" that make the plans in our middle Tennessee area have created a year-round school calendar that many schools follow these days. They say the year-round configuration delivers the same number of total days of classroom education and vacation as traditional calendars, distributed differently throughout the year. Proponents say that students fare some 19% better academically with the year-round configuration. I still say it ain't right!

I get it. The origin of summer vacation started as a ploy to pry the kids free to pitch in with the spring planting and fall harvest seasons. Isn't that why our ancestors had kids--to work their crops? Still, the annual rite of childhood freedom was established, even though kids today lay around playing Guitar Hero and are prone to develop health problems like smart-mouth disease and obesity. Since my day in the sun, moms have taken to the work force and having a kid hanging around the house all day unsupervised is dangerous for the child and irresponsible for the parent. So, we all comply and change the beloved traditional summer vacation schedule to suit an "evolving" society.

Go ahead, set up your back to school sales. Even though "the man" makes a scheduling change on paper, in my heart, summer vacation is still from mid-June through mid-September.