At Randolph Community College, our Fall 2011 semester launches on August 15, bringing a ceremonious close of sorts to summer. In the local schools, as well, teachers are reporting back right around this same time, and their students will soon follow.
So, I find myself wondering once more about the whole concept of the 'summer vacation' and why America's educational calendar is built around the premise of the summer break. I've always thought that the June-July-August break took root when our society was agrarian...when family farms dotted the American landscape in all places except the most urban areas and those involved in agriculture for their livelihoods and subsistence far outnumbered those who were not. It always made sense to me, especially since my own family usually has a garden each summer, that school-age children were needed in the fields in the summer and the educational system simply accommodated those needs.
Recently, however, I read online that historians at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum that recreates an 1830s New England farming village, say that the summer timing doesn't really correlate to historic agricultual needs. What these historians say is that farm children went to school from December to March and from mid-May to August. Why? Because spring and fall were apparently the peak planting and harvesting times, and it was during those spans that children were needed in the fields.
So, I definitely have cause to re-think my own old preconceived notions about the original purpose of the summer vacation. I will have to dig a little further into this whole issue, because it is so central to the American culture and way of life. Anyone out there know of good sources of information? If so, please let me know. And if you are an elementary or secondary school teacher, or a student not attending summer classes, I hope you enjoy your remaining days off!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
I'm in a Back-to-School state-of-mind
Here we are on August 1st, and I'm in a back-to-school state-of-mind. Walk into any Wal-Mart, Target, or drug store and you can't miss the stacks of school supplies! Reams of blank notebook paper...pencils yet to be sharpened...everything is new and unspoiled, hinting at the promise of filling clean slates with knowledge and discovery.
I remember my own experiences as a young girl, accompanying my mom to shop for my school supplies and school clothes each summer, right about this time. Ask my mom, and she will tell you that my folders and notebooks could not be dog-earred and I would not accept covers that had scars from spiral wires or otherwise careless handling. Later in life, as a woman attending graduate school, I got to discover all over again just how much I loved the process of getting ready to learn. Certainly, many things had changed...buying a laptop computer in some ways took precedent over the more traditional school supplies. But even so, I still had to have the right folders (without scars!) and pens and highlighters and color-coordinated Post-It Notes. What a joy it was for me to touch and feel my way through those aisles, dreaming of filling my own head with new and wondrous knowledge.
For fall 2011, I am not enrolled anywhere as a student and while I can't come up with any rational excuses for buying anything for myself beyond a scant gel pen or two, I have had a blast hitting the weekly sales and purchasing school supplies to donate to the local drives. The recipients of my contributions will surely never know just how fastidious and fussy I was in choosing their pristine composition books. Nor will they know how much I wish and hope that they as students fill those pages with thoughts and facts and questions and that they write outside the margins, and dog-ear their own pages, and visit and revisit certain sections so many times that they have to rubber band their well-worn covers. Learning, I believe, is best when it is messy! Thinking critically requires...messiness! Learning isn't linear. Rather, it is a funneling in, sifting through, and tossing out, or at least placing aside, kind of process.
To our RCC students, and to students out there everywhere this fall, I envy you your mess! I hope you enjoy the process of learning, and I wish you great success in your studies.
I remember my own experiences as a young girl, accompanying my mom to shop for my school supplies and school clothes each summer, right about this time. Ask my mom, and she will tell you that my folders and notebooks could not be dog-earred and I would not accept covers that had scars from spiral wires or otherwise careless handling. Later in life, as a woman attending graduate school, I got to discover all over again just how much I loved the process of getting ready to learn. Certainly, many things had changed...buying a laptop computer in some ways took precedent over the more traditional school supplies. But even so, I still had to have the right folders (without scars!) and pens and highlighters and color-coordinated Post-It Notes. What a joy it was for me to touch and feel my way through those aisles, dreaming of filling my own head with new and wondrous knowledge.
For fall 2011, I am not enrolled anywhere as a student and while I can't come up with any rational excuses for buying anything for myself beyond a scant gel pen or two, I have had a blast hitting the weekly sales and purchasing school supplies to donate to the local drives. The recipients of my contributions will surely never know just how fastidious and fussy I was in choosing their pristine composition books. Nor will they know how much I wish and hope that they as students fill those pages with thoughts and facts and questions and that they write outside the margins, and dog-ear their own pages, and visit and revisit certain sections so many times that they have to rubber band their well-worn covers. Learning, I believe, is best when it is messy! Thinking critically requires...messiness! Learning isn't linear. Rather, it is a funneling in, sifting through, and tossing out, or at least placing aside, kind of process.
To our RCC students, and to students out there everywhere this fall, I envy you your mess! I hope you enjoy the process of learning, and I wish you great success in your studies.
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