June 27, 2005
IT'S NOT LIKE MS BROOKS HAS A REAL JOB (via erp):
Parents' Summer Homework (ROSA BROOKS, June 22, 2005, LA Times)
Summer's here, and for most American children, school's out. But it's still appropriate to administer a painless little diagnostic quiz.Here goes:
1. When I contemplate the prospect of a 10-week school vacation, I feel:
A. Joy.
B. Panic.
If you answered "A," chances are that you're a little kid. Give yourself 10 points for precocity (you're reading the newspaper!) and another 10 just for being a little kid.
If you answered "B," you're probably a parent. Deduct 10 points.
If that strikes you as unfair, you're right, but if you're a parent, you really ought to be used to unfairness by now. For parents, lengthy school "vacations" are no kind of vacation at all. That tenuous stability achieved during the rest of the year — when, barring the usual illnesses and "weather events," you had child care for the better part of each day — is gone, gone, gone.
Today, the overwhelming majority of parents work full time outside the home. That includes most mothers: Women with children are just about as likely to be in the labor force as women without children. As a result, school vacations send most American parents into a tailspin...
Imagine if we were as helpless as the Left thinks we are? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2005 9:59 AM
Another reason for striving to develop and maintain close (geographic and emotional) extended families. It may be a better choice for the old folks to stay near the grand children rather than retiring to the Sunbelt. Another option is for the old folks to sell out and move with the younger family when relocation is necessary. Or the young family may fore go that attractive promotion in far away Kalamazoo in order to benefit from the support of the extended family. From my observations, the right is more likely than the left to adopt this sort of life style.
Posted by: tgn at June 27, 2005 10:50 AMOr you delay childrearing till the point where one parent can afford to stay home or work from home.
Posted by: bart at June 27, 2005 11:38 AMOr, as in my case, you make sure your kids have all the advantages necessary to make it to the upper income brackets where they are many options for child care including in-house nannies and private schools -- and to take summers off.
Most child care is abysmal and contrary to Ms Brooks, state child care, at least in France is even worse. My son lives in Montpellier (don't ask) and he was pretty disappointed by the quality of state run child care and had to opt for a nice grandmotherly type they paid to watch my granddaughter. He formerly was rather leftwing in his thinking, but growing up has changed his mind radically. Unfortunately, his French wife hasn't allowed a cogent thought to pop up in her entire life, so she still fancies herself a Marxist (again, don't ask).
Eleonore, age 13, has the good sense to like the U.S. better than France and can't wait until she's old enough to attend college here . . . and neither can we.
Ms. Brooks is right about at least one thing--most parents do view school as little more than child care...
Posted by: b at June 27, 2005 12:37 PMerp,
All you needed to say was Montpelier(heart of the Red South), the rest took care of itself.
Posted by: bart at June 27, 2005 1:14 PMIt still would be better to have a year-long school year without three months of vacation in the summer. In Arizona, it's too hot to go outside during the day, so the kids are trapped indoors all summer.
Posted by: Brandon at June 27, 2005 6:37 PM'twoud be better if humans didn't live in the desert.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2005 7:20 PMI don't think kids need more days in school as much as they need more frequent but shorter breaks. A two or three week hiatus in summer is enough, along with increasing the length of winter and spring breaks.
Posted by: bart at June 28, 2005 7:25 AMGetting rid of Summer would be like imposing Prohibition.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2005 8:09 AMOJ,
You don't think homeschoolers hew to the traditional school calendar do you?
Posted by: bart at June 28, 2005 10:08 AMTheir kids are in camp with our kids.
Posted by: oj at June 28, 2005 1:09 PM