Every year we hear about the poor retention of information in our kids by the start of the new school year, due to the long summer vacation in RI. Yet Melinda Thies said she believes there is a strong educational basis for eliminating February vacation, which would make summer vacation even longer. Common sense would dictate that we need LESS summer vacation, NOT more! The concern about snow days needing to be made up is an equally absurd excuse, as the final days of the school year are the final days of the school year, regardless of when they're held. Further, I would suggest that the plentiful absences of students around Christmas/New Year, and absences bookending the current single weeks of vacation in February and April, indicate that it would be smarter to extend vacation times to two weeks rather than one or none, so that families could take their children to visit relatives or do some traveling, without having to take their kids out of school in order to spend a reasonable length of time with them. While we're on this subject, and I'm daring to dream, how about giving our middle schoolers some recess so they can sit still in class and actually pay attention? There are plenty of studies that show a significant statistical increase in school success when kids have a chance to 'get the fidgets out' with daily physical activity. I would love it if RI could actually be a leader in this, rather than just following the popular line. After all, as Melinda Thies pointed out at the meeting - "Popular gave us reality TV...and Justin Bieber."
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