When it comes to young people acquiring skills, knowledge, and the ability to use them, there are no unimportant days, weeks or months. Learning is an ongoing process; there’s just no telling when something will take place inside or outside of a classroom that will spark a life-impacting epiphany ”“ or perhaps even trigger a series of them ”“ for a student or students.
But while there truly aren’t any unimportant hours in a school day, there are those who believe certain times of the year are more educationally significant than others. Public and private schools in Maine are open for all or part of ten months per year, and every one of them is vital.
Many high school students and their parents have multiple reasons for believing the most impactful month of the school year is June. It’s when final exams are given, and the results of those end-of-year assessments can potentially impact a student’s immediate and long-term future. Such tests can also provide tangible evidence of how efficiently and well a young person is learning. June is also the month teachers bid a (mostly) fond farewell to the young folks who’ve been entrusted to them for the past year, and when seniors graduate to the next chapter of their lives. In addition, it’s when parents reacquire full-time custody of their children for two months worth of 24-hour days, and everyone gets to begin enjoying what is universally and sometimes accurately called “summer vacation.”
But identifying education’s potentially most impactful month(s) can be best illustrated with an analogy. Imagine a 16-year-old distance runner who trains diligently for an entire school year, from September through June. By the end of her spring track season she’s running a mile in under five minutes, which is pretty impressive. But then, after medaling at every race she entered, she spends her summer lying on the couch staring at electronic screens, chatting with friends and/or strangers on social media, and playing mind-numbing video games, all the while satisfying her increasingly frequent hunger pangs with junk food and quenching her thirst with libations containing large doses of caffeine, sugar, or both.
Come September, there’s no chance she’ll run a mile in five minutes; in fact, if she follows the regimen described above, she’d be lucky to waddle it in twice that time. Those who have worked hard to achieve growth and excellence in other areas would suffer similar fates if they took two full months off from practicing, whether the skill involved is athletic, artistic, or intellectual. But then, no serious athlete or musician would ever simply take two consecutive months off from practicing something they enjoy, and that they’re good at.
So why then do so many young people, with the tacit approval of their parents, totally abstain from reading and writing every July and August?
Trying one’s best is of the utmost importance. But some things are, in the long run, far more important than others. Aspiring to run a fast mile, sing a solo at the school concert, win the league basketball championship, or earn top student honors in a vocational program are all admirable goals, not to mention impressive achievements. But in the long run there is nothing physical or artistic a high school student can achieve which matters nearly as much as continuing to hone their thinking skills without interruption.
As disappointing as it would be to watch a gifted athlete fritter away his or her summer indolently, allowing a young person to let his/her brain lie fallow every July and August is by comparison a sin that is exponentially worse. A human being of any age or gender who annually takes two months off from mental exertion is not only wasting potentially valuable growth time, they’re setting a dangerous precedent. Those who habitually disengage their brain for two months every summer in their youth often find that doing so for longer stretches gets easier as they age. And as too many genial slackers find out all too late, life is a whole lot less appealing once mental growth slows or ceases, voluntarily or otherwise.
Students who take July and August off from reading and writing arrive back at school in September with their literacy skills in the same condition as the physical capabilities of the athlete who spent the summer physically inert. The difference: In 10 years, trophies won in high school will be dust collectors, but the abilities to read, write, listen, speak, and think will, for better or worse, go a long way toward determining how an individual will spend his or her remaining days on Earth.
People who believe June is an educationally essential month are correct. But the two that follow it are potentially far more important.
— Andy Young is completing his 13th year of teaching literacy skills at a local (York County) high school.
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