c. 1997 Religion News Service
(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com, or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)
UNDATED _ I raise a hue and cry against summer ending this weekend!
My protest is not against the wisdom of the deity: I have no objection to the tilting of the Earth on its axis that creates the changing seasons. I figure that if God wants to create the illusion that the sun moves north and south each year, that’s God’s business. What do I know?
But I object to the artificial end of summer instituted by humans. In God’s plan, summer continues until the autumnal equinox _ Sept. 22 this year. So by Labor Day, we still have three more weeks of God’s summer ahead of us _ not nearly enough for some, but still ours by right.
Why then does American society dare to say summer ends on the first Monday in September? Somehow our puritanical culture must insist that summer conclude prematurely because we have enjoyed it too much.
If I had my way, summer would go on until Columbus Day, or maybe even Halloween. But since I’m in a mood to compromise, I’ll settle for the equinox.
Now this change doesn’t mean we need establish a new holiday. Rather, with a single stroke of his presidential pen, Bill Clinton could move Labor Day back three weeks. What better legacy could be left by a president so concerned about his place in history?
While he’s at it, Clinton should also issue an executive order forbidding schools to open until Oct. 1. Forcing kids back to school in the middle of summer is just as immoral as prematurely ending summer. No one seriously believes students learn anything in late August and September, do they?.
Then there’s the folks who would like to do away with the summer break from school altogether and force kids into a year-round program. Summer school may be tolerable for those who didn’t do well last year or want a jump on the coming year, but compulsory summer school is evil. Only those who have forgotten what school is like would want to inflict it on young people. Leave the kids alone!
Teens have it right when they say school is BORING, especially the way education is conducted today. We have yet to learn how to educate young minds. Somehow we have acquired the odd notion that by crowding students into classrooms for six hours a day, five days a week and forcing homework on them, we are developing their reading, writing, and thinking skills. This is a patently silly assumption.
Yet, I’m prepared to let it stand for now, if we give young people a decent summer vacation _ at least until after the equinox.
But arguments to the contrary will go something like this: Today, where households usually have both parents working full time, young people must be shipped off to school early.
Aha! Here is the heart of the matter: Schools are low-cost baby sitters that free parents to pursue their own lives and careers.
Most parents are delighted when school begins _ and the earlier the better _ because it gets the kids out from under their feet. That’s why there are so many pre- and pre-pre-schools these days. Get the kids out of the house!
But parents forget how much they hated school. Parents, educators, and state legislators are conspiring to ruin young lives and imaginations with an educational system that is incurably BORING just so kids will be off the street and out of the house. It’s an evil conspiracy.
Am I serious? Half fun and full earnest, as my mother would say.
Did I hate going back to a school when I was kid? Passionately. And unlike a lot of other adults, I still recall that hatred _ especially on Labor Day Weekend.
The university where I teach _ a wise and humane place in this respect, at any rate _ doesn’t start classes until the first week in October and there is no evidence that our students suffer for the extra month off.
MJP END GREELEY
