August 4, 2008 08:01 PM
Summer Vacation--Almost Over!
I was a little shocked when I opened up my morning newspaper and read this: It's back-to-school day in several metro districts | ajc.com. Wait, what? It's only August 4th!
My son, that lucky fella, has one more week of summer vacation before he starts high school. My daughter is even luckier--she has two weeks before her college classes begin. But I have been wondering all day: What happened to summer? While I remember a few of my friends attending year-round school in the 1970s, most of my life, summer vacation equaled about three months. But now, my kids get only bout 2 1/2 months. Why does it seem like summers are shrinking?
I decided to go looking for some information on the school year and summer vacations, and found an interesting article on the History of the Summer Vacation at infoplease.com. And according to wikipedia.com, the U.S. has some of the longest summer vacations in the world. So I have decided to stop complaining, right now, and just enjoy this last week with my kids. After all, someone has a birthday coming ...TOMORROW!
