Times They are a Changin'

I absolutely adore the Holiday Season.  Images come to mind of falling back into bed when I realize I have an extra hour, cute little snowmen with whatever we can find for buttons and a nose, and the cookie crusted smiles of my children on Christmas Eve.  However, one thing I do NOT like about the current time change system is trying to get back to normal in the Spring.  Man does it suck to stay up late, as we tend to do in the winter, and then find that you have to get up (and struggle to get sleepy kids up) an hour earlier the next morning.

I actually found out a few years ago that Arizona doesn't even participate in the time change rule.  I suppose I understand, given that they have so many hours of sunlight already, but California surely has more sunlight than Arizona, right?  Then, there's the whole bit about Indiana.  The residents in that state must have a hell of a time during the winter months with eighteen counties on Central time and the rest on Eastern time.

This brings to mind our public school system and the fact that we still give summers off.  As a teacher, don't get me wrong, it's a huge shift in my sanity, frame of mind and happiness when I realize that Memorial Day is around the corner.  However, does it really make sense for our students to stay out of school for three months in the summer when they are academically behind the rest of the world?

I believe the original idea was for children to have the farming season off to help their families cultivate and harvest crops. This totally made sense for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when we still had somewhat of an agrarian society.  Today, I'm sorry, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.  I won't bore you by going into the sordid details of my classrooms and the general lack of preparation, manners, initiative and, for that matter, brain power, exhibited by the majority of today's cyber brain-addled youth.  Instead, from someone who is in the trenches every day, let me ask you to trust me (and Matt Damon), times need to change.