Consider, if you will, the value of loafing

SOKOL E-mail: Click here

By MARLENE SOKOL

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 4, 2000

Early?

Yes, it's early.

Temperatures are in the 90s and the heat index is registering 102. That might not mean much in your air-conditioned Acura. But what if you had to ride a school bus? Or line up for a fire drill? Or dress for gym?

It's inhumane, I tell you.

We asked the big school district brains what they were thinking when they called our children back on Aug. 9, knowing that the civilized world doesn't start the school year until after Labor Day.

They told us they want to ensure our kids the highest possible academic achievement. They told us, the more repetition you have, the better you get. They told us, any instructional time will help the students.

That's just silly.

Every kid needs down time, loaf time, get-so-bored-you-can't-stand-it time. Logarithms aren't going anywhere and neither are the food pyramid or the Magna Carta. Those dangling participles will still be dangling in September, benchmarks or no benchmarks.

Not that all parents would agree.

Marianne Presta of Lutz is ready to send her daughter Megan to Schwarzkopf Elementary School. Presta's children had a good time at camp, followed by a week set aside for family outings. "We're going to the MOSI and to the aquarium," Presta said. "Then I'll really be ready."

Likewise, Lia Tarallo says her two boys have had enough Nintendo. She's so ready to ship them off to Cannella Elementary, she's already buying their supplies.

"I work at home, and it's hard to keep them entertained," she said. They love to swim but "you can't let them swim unless you're with them."

Others are most definitely resisting the early start.

"It's too quick," says Louisa Ward, who enters ninth grade this year at Gaither High. "The summer's gone, and I don't know where it went."

Her mother, Sue Ward, agrees. "We wanted to go on a canoe trip, spend more time at the beach, go and see Savannah," she said. "But we didn't get the time."

Michele Berry would have liked to take "more day trips, more trips to the library" with her daughters, who go to Twin Lakes Elementary. "It's like, "Where's that whole other month?' "

Time ran out for the Holm family as well.

"I would have liked to go somewhere, traveling," grouses Nicholas, who will be in seventh grade at Van Buren Middle School.

"It's way too soon," agrees April Holm, who has two kids in Van Buren and two more in Cahoon Elementary, where she is PTA president.

"I was sick a lot this summer so we didn't do much of anything," she said. "I'm one of those mothers who does not look forward to the first day of school. I just hate having them gone."

What about parents with shared custody arrangements? What about family reunions?

The early start wreaks all kinds of havoc for families that extend beyond Florida. I overheard one woman say she might let her children finish summer camp instead of hauling them back to Tampa for the first week of school, so they can take part in the annual "color war" tournament. "They look forward to it all summer," she told her friend.

Personally I can't come up with anything that dramatic.

But my daughter is still mastering the dance moves to Oops, I did it again. There are at least a couple Scooby Doo episodes she hasn't seen. She's got a big bucket of seashells that she likes to paint with colored markers, beautiful rainbow stripes and patterns. She has barely made a dent.

She's nowhere near the level of boredom and misery that would make me declare, "This child needs to be back in school, and I want to wake up every day at 6 a.m. to take her there."

Nor do I get it when people -- again, those people with the big brains -- suggest we eliminate the summer break and consign our children to a year-round daily grind.

As Berry said, "They have the rest of their lives for that."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.