Just four weeks into my grandchildren's summer vacation from school, I was shocked to see local department store personnel getting ready to stock shelves with back-to-school merchandise.
It honestly made me sad.
Summer's almost over, and my three grandchildren, Tilleigh, 10, Evie, 7, and William, 4, and I just got into our summer routine. I keep the kids during the day while their mom works.
I could be in the minority here, but I seriously find it depressing that summer is nearly half over and my grandkids will soon go back to school. Summer, when I was a kid, lasted a full three months. My friends and I loved every single day, and some of my best childhood memories have everything to do with summer.
Most of my friends and I went to camp for a week or two each summer. We swam most every day in the community pool, and we stayed outside in our yards at night playing kick-the-can or hide-and-go-seek. Not one of us was inside playing Roblox or watching YouTube and surfing the net. Oh, right. We didn't have computers way back then. We used our imagination and played.
Sure, I know some of the reasons schools start back early these days - kids now get a weeklong fall break and a few other days off during the school year, and, in many households both parents work or the single parent works, and child care is hard to find and costly. Solid reasons.
When researching this topic, I learned there are, in fact, bona fide reasons to shorten summer vacation and head back early to the classroom. But I'm still not convinced.
According to pbs.org, long summer breaks have been shown to cause children, especially lower-income children, to lose ground academically.
"It's a phenomenon known as 'summer slide,' " the report notes, explaining that children return back to school having lost a time period of learning.
"Researchers have studied enriching summer programs, summer school and even year-round school to combat this summer learning loss," the information notes.
Year-round schools? Talk about depressing.
The National Education Association reports that most schools today operate on a 10-month calendar (180 school days), but others have migrated to year-round education where "schools continue to operate 180 days per year, but they stretch out the 180 days over the entire year and take shorter breaks between each term."
I, personally, think kids need a full three-month break.
Retired local middle-school teacher Madeleine Rogers says the three-month schedule works.
"My grandchildren live in Chapel Hill (N.C.), and they start right after Labor Day and get out June 9. It seems to work well," she says.
Lindsey Williams, of Chattanooga, a former teacher and the mother of three young children, says the second week of August is too early for kids to go back to school.
"It's too hot in the South for kids to go to school at that time, especially with the dress codes some schools have. I would not prefer year-round school for the same reason, and because I think summer is the only time in our lives that kids can get a real break, and it's a perk of childhood that can't be underestimated."
Williams says she does, though, understand the hardships low-income families may face during summer vacation.
"I do think the provisions for low-income, school-based child care should be greater during school breaks. As it stands, students who qualify for free and reduced lunch do not get a discount for summer school-age childcare, and that sucks, because it creates a real burden for working parents."
On the flip side, former Chattanooga resident and journalist Amy Turnbull Clymer, who now resides in Virginia, says until this year, her daughter was in a "nearly" year-round school.
"She only had six or seven weeks off in the summer, and it was great for many reasons," Clymer says.
Among those reasons, she says, are the cost of child care, reducing time off prepares kids for "real life" when they grow up and get jobs, and it's less stressful to teachers.
"Studies have shown that the shorter the break, the less reteaching has to be done in the fall," she says. "Teachers spend weeks at the beginning of school getting kids back to where they were in the previous spring. Year-round school alleviates that altogether.
Still, there are the die-hard folks who think the kids need the long break.
"I went to Chattanooga City Schools," says U.S. Postal Service retiree Joe Scruggs.
"We went to school the day after Labor Day. We didn't have fall break, we didn't have in-service days once a month, we didn't have three weeks at Christmas, we didn't have a weeklong spring break, we didn't close schools because it was too cold, or too wet, or it might snow."
Former local radio talk-show host Robert T. Nash says summer vacation ended for him on the day after Labor Day.
"In my opinion, schools should let out for summer the first Friday in June and resume no sooner than the day after Labor Day. This will generally allow a proper 90-day respite."
Jeff Campbell, of Chattanooga, whose wife teaches prekindergarten in a local school, brings up a valid point about the length of summer vacation.
"Teachers, and only teachers, should be the ones that determine school calendars - not legislators, administrators or school boards," he says. "Yet, teachers' roles in determining much of anything having to do with their jobs has been diminished."
My view on summer vacation is based on my own experience. I was fortunate that my mom worked from home, so I rarely stayed with a sitter or was sent to summer-long camps. I got to stay home. I realize that the world has changed dramatically since I was a child, and I do understand why the length of summer vacation has changed over the years.
Meanwhile, I'll be checking out newspaper circulars to determine where my daughter and I can save money on No. 2 pencils, white board erasers, disinfectant wipes and the other items on my grandchildren's school supply lists - and that's another story.
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfree press.com.