August is the new September?
Everyone knows the saying that all good things must come to end. And good things like summer do have to end. However, it shouldn’t have to end as early as it does. Our summer has been over for weeks now. Some people have barely noticed that we’re almost halfway through the first quarter. Those are the people who every morning, look at the red numbers of their blaring alarm clocks and immediately start feeling summer withdrawals. It’s understandable as to why. We have to face the facts: AC’s are still blasting, pools are still operational and sweater weather has not made its appearance yet. Education is very important and we’re lucky to have it, but I’m just saying that we should take cues from our fellow states and previous generations and start school right after Labor Day.
The Aurora City School District isn’t the only school district to share this early back to school phenomenon of course. There are over 12,000 school districts spread across the nation, some of them like Hawaii even start school in July. Other school districts in neighboring states are just like us; they have started going back to school before Labor Day around mid-90’s. That’s not to say that all schools don’t go back to school until after Labor Day. However, there are reasons to why school starts so early.
The primary reason Aurora schools start so early is that the school district wants to have semester break before December instead of any time later. School districts also have to think about the state test we take in April. They want teachers to have more time to teach students the curriculum before the state assessment in April. (aka it gives students more time to prepare for standardized test.) And if we look on the bright side we have more breaks in the school year that we might not have if we push the start day back further such as Easter. Although, as we all know there is no other season as summer.
August, is basically the last full month of summer we have. We should be enjoying it while it lasts, instead of sitting in a cold classroom. Which, by the way, doesn’t have to be cold. Schools are spending money on having the AC on during school, but if we push school back to when it just starts getting a bit cooler schools won’t have to spend as much. And since we’re on the subject of money, let’s put into perspective another way school districts can keep the change in their pockets. Later school dates mean that more families will be going on more vacations, then that is more money that’s collected in tax revenue for the state.
When school districts moved up the start date by about a month, they started some pretty strange trends that don’t really make any sense. We start school on a Wednesday, which in itself is pretty weird. The first week of school isn’t really a full week. It’s three days. And buying school supplies has become a summer thing. Parents go shopping for their kids in June. Anytime I see paper and pencils on my dining room table my summer vibe is instantly killed. Starting the school year in August also killed a well-known feeling that came with Labor Day. Labor Day used to signify the end of summer and the beginning of summer. Students knew the feeling as watching your favorite character die in your favorite movie or show. Now, all our Labor Day is known for is about finishing the homework that’s due Tuesday.
To us, Labor Day is like tragedy that happened before our time. The fact of the matter is that our school doesn’t look like it is pushing its start date back to Labor Day anytime soon. That’s not to say that we’ll never get to enjoy August as a part of our summer break. Until then, we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed for snow days.
