The back to school advertising campaigns have been bombarding one and all for the past few weeks. As a teacher and parent, now a grandparent, I appreciate preparedness but continue to prefer everyone wait until mid-August. I know once the summer sales overlap with school supplies, both consumers and businesses are happy. It just doesn’t feel right when everyone starts worrying about fall appearing. Many 4-H families and their students could go back to the mid-August time to hold the county fair. It gives all the agricultural participants more time to make sure their product is ready for the public viewing.
There is a saying when the changes for daylight savings are acknowledged, the old “spring forward—fall back” does motivate some folks to race out of the gate earlier than everyone else. Summer has been left alone really, with the idea that when the spring flowers bloom, everyone prepares themselves for the lazy summer attitudes. But we can only put up with the lengthy break for so long, everyone needs to get their school supplies ahead of time. Sometimes it really is pushing things ahead oo far when Halloween and Christmas displays are put up in summer, so that consumers can gather all their seasonal decorations at one time. They can choose when to display them. In some neighborhoods and stores, one can spot decorations for the next season creeping closer and closer, some crowding out the less important seasonal decor.
The return to school coming earlier in the fall and later in the spring is celebrated by quite a few people, parents and educators included. he number of required school days in Colorado has changed greatly over the years. Originally, most kids in a rural community didn’t start school during the dog days of summer. Some school districts continue a traditional schedule, which allowed for students to have summer break from Memorial Day to Labor Day. That policy changed years ago in most school districts. Aside from the year-round educational version, most school districts have been starting mid-August.
“I always know summer is over when the County Fair starts,” more than a few of my fellow teachers advised on going back to the school ahead of time and getting the rooms ready for the students to return. They couldn’t say this to anybody who wasn’t in the educational realm, as it was accepted by so many in the community that teachers were paid year-round and played “hooky” in the summer. Long ago this became a myth.
The countless hours spent preparing for the coming school year usually included attending classes and conferences, working tirelessly on curriculum to be better prepared for the challenges of the coming school year.
Those were the days when hardly anyone spoke out in support of the community’s teaching staff. What the community didn’t seem to understand was that most teachers had two or three side jobs. Quite a few needed one or two “work for hire” summer jobs, just to be able to support their families.
How does that phrase in that familiar song go? Summertime and the living is easy? It may feel easier when the weather warms up, but those who continue to work 12 months a year might object and call for shelving the songbook. Listen to it sometime, but be sure and get out the hammock.
By Dolly Viscardi
