Adventures in education

I read with interest the news that the Palestine-Wheatley School District is going to a four-day school week this fall.

I make no judgments: Either it will work or it won’t. If it does, they’ll keep it, if it doesn’t, they can always change it back.

There was one thing I couldn’t help wondering as I read the article – how would I have liked going to a four-day week back when I was a student?

Personally, I probably would have liked it. Anything to get out of a day of school, especially if I had been used to a five-day week. Friday off? Hot dog!

The one drawback might have been the extended school day. There was an exciting, if brief, period in my life when that longer day might have made me late getting home to watch Dewey Phillips when he was on TV (Okay, I’ve dated myself; you youngsters can just look it up).

Of course, I’m not sure how Mom (along with other homemaker-type moms; there was a lot of that back then) would have felt about having me home on Fridays. Would she have enjoyed having her sweet boy (ahem!) home, or would she have grumbled to have me in her hair for an extra day?

And of course, later there would have been the Baby Sister and Baby Brother. I’ve often wondered if it was a relief for Mom just to get us out of the house, if only for a few hours, five days a week. Not exactly a romanticized notion, but you never know.

A four-day school week is not the only concept that has been toyed with when it comes to public education. I’ve heard talk of doing away with semesters and going to quarters, something I’ve never completely understood. I think a semester is longer than a quarter, but there are more quarters. Or something.

Perhaps the most radical idea I’ve heard is having school year-round. As it stands, there are all those buildings sitting idle during the summer, and students seem to lose a lot of what they’ve learned over the long summer vacation. A number of shorter breaks would be figured into the school year if it was held year-round. When I first heard it, as an adult, I thought it wasn’t a bad idea. Pretty good, actually.

Of course, as a kid, I would have screamed bloody murder if they had suddenly told me I’d be going to school in the summer. Any talk about how there would be this break and that break, and there would still be the Christmas holidays, etc., would have fallen on my deaf little ears.

Some of the teachers might not have been too thrilled with all-year schooling, either – even though when I was younger I thought teachers hated to let us go for any time off at all.

Anyway, we’ll see how things work out at Palestine-Wheatley this year.

•••••

Now folks, I’m fully vaccinated against Covid 19, including the booster. I think everyone should get vaccinated.

There, I’ve said that. Now I’ll say this. Nobody likes mixed signals, including me. When I watch the news I hear, on the one hand, that health officials are worried that hospitals will be clogged as we have another surge in serious cases.

I also hear on the news, and read in the newspaper, that the Omicron variant, supposedly the most contagious of the different Covid variants, may be about to take a nosedive. The experts are glad.

So what’s happening? Is something going to take the place of Omicron? If the other variants are not as contagious as Omicron, can’t we all breathe a little easier – at least those of use who are vaccinated and trying to “social distance” (I think the term has become a verb)? Will there ever be an answer?

•••••

Well, the snow was neither negligible, nor sufficient to let kids (and grownups) have any fun. Not that I’m a big fan of snow, anyway. It’s perhaps evident that there aren’t a lot of things of which I am truly a fan.

Anyway, Sunday’s was the third snowfall I’ve experienced since the holidays, but that’s not my record. I remember one year, back when I worked at the Times-Herald the first time, when for several weeks, it snowed every Thursday. And it was a lot of snow each time. Anyone talking about global warming would have been stoned.

I wonder if we’re in a pattern of some sort, and will be seeing more snow, in between bouts of warmer-than-normal weather.

At least I won’t be heading out into the frozen wastes to take pictures of crudelymade snowmen – kids in the South just don’t have enough practice. But they won’t be calling me, no matter how much it may snow. Being retired has its perks.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: David Nichol is a freelance writer who retired from the Times-Herald. He can be contacted at nicholdb@cablelynx.com.)