Summer Vacation

I guess if the President has his way then K-12 students need to beware. Our President is floating ideas about the summer vacation we all just enjoyed. It could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,"

Now let Paul McCubbin offer his view: In my personal experience, the idea of giving school children the summer off from school has always been held in high esteem. It is a time-honored tradition which we have fit into our schedules for a number of generations. I don't see how our economic position would be improved if we robbed our youth of time off to explore during the summer, and disrupted all their parents vacation plans.

How about we just get the parents more involved during the current school year, and not give them one more thing to worry about during the summer months?

As it stands most households with school age children already have two parents working fulltime. Hey, and what about the teachers??? Does anyone think that they are working 40 hour weeks? They never did in Ridgewood when I attended. Let's just all relax and give this entire idea a second thought. Peace.