The Catskill Chronicle

Dear Editor –

So it appears that, once again, the Memorial Day weekend has become the kickoff for the annual “let’s goof off in June” month for the Monticello School District. They decided to turn the holiday dedicated to the remembrance of Americans who gave, in Lincoln’s immortal phrase, “the last full measure of devotion” into yet another excuse for a five, yes, a five-day vacation.

Now, as in the past, most parents and grandparents have experienced the no-school days, the half- school days and the one-hour-in-the-building days that plague the last month of the ten months the school system calls a year.

There are a number of reasons why this practice does serious harm. Here are three:

First, many young families are forced to work two and three jobs just to stay afloat financially. Given this, they have a right to expect some minimum degree of cooperation in the business of keeping the children in school for something like the regular hours whenever possible. Failure to do so not only jeopardizes their ability to support the children with something like a decent standard of living but in extreme cases leaves the children unattended for dangerously long periods of time.

Second, the children are being subjected to a practice that separates them from the realities of the job market they will have to be part of as adults. It may surprise the employees of the school district to learn that, not only do most gainfully employed adults not take five days off for one holiday but that countless numbers of them, e.g., health care workers, emergency service workers and, oh yes, parents of young children, actually have to work many holidays and weekends.

And, oh yeah, third, less time off just might lead to increased teaching time, which is what I hear dedicated teachers saying they really need.

And just how many snow days were left after this Klondike-like winter we just experienced?

Brenda Safer*

White Lake, NY

*An ancient person who remembers when the last day of the school term ended at 3:00 p.m. on the last weekday in June.