Whoo-hoo! It’s summer break! Yes… teachers look forward it just as much as students do! I’m not saying I actually take more than a week off during that break, but it’s a “reset”… a chance to go at it from a different angle – maybe perfecting techniques, but sometimes scrapping the old and trying something new. I love that!
The last two weeks of school are done at break-neck speed. I spent at least two nights till 1:30 a.m. at the school, trying desperately to stay ahead of the next day’s events. This was my husband’s first year of teaching, and I was trying to ease the stress of the last days by letting him know about the abrupt end ahead. But I don’t think anything could prepare him for the rush, rush, rush, rush, and then OVER. There was a little shellshock, but it’s three days after the last day, and now he’s busily making repairs around the school that there just wasn’t time to do during the school year.
I know there are those who find a two- or three-month vacation a misrepresentation of real life. After all, what job in “real life” lets you have the whole summer off? (Besides teaching, of course!) I know that its reason is no longer a real reason. You know, to allow children to come home and help with the harvest. But I have to tell you that I am in total support of at least two months off. Not only does it give teachers and administration a chance to repair the grounds and rework ideas and such, but it halts contagious illnesses and makes the jump in maturity noteworthy to teachers and peers.
You got yours when you were a kid. Let them have theirs. If your jealous, become a teacher. There’s a serious shortage of us out here. If you can stomach pay cut, there’s a summer vacation waiting for you! Happy Summer!
- Michelle