Day 1: Summer Vacation

So far, this blog's ONLY entry has received more comments than any of my entries in my other blog. Which signifies a few things:

1. There is a lot of pressure on me for this to be badass.

2. You people don't comment enough on my other blog.

So, in regards to #1: screw you all, this might possibly suck and you are just going to have to deal. And #2: I apologize for saying screw you, I actually love you all, I'm just nervous. Please forgive me and comment more? Thanks.

Today at the gym, I grabbed a copy of Time magazine to put over the treadmill's screen so I wouldn't be able to see how long I'd been running for or how far I'd gone (otherwise I'd be looking down every 2 seconds). Now, lets face it... I can't run very long without stopping to walk, so while I was walking I flipped through the magazine and what I learned today via an article titled "A Brief History Of: Summer Vacation" is that (drum roll please)...

Back in the day in the United States, schools didn't have summer vacations. We used to have a summer and a winter term so that little kids could help out mom and pops during spring plantings and fall harvesting. And kids that lived in the cities and didn't have to do that bullshit instead had to go to school for 48 weeks of the year! That is revolting.

Luckily, around the 1840s a nice lad by the name of Horace Mann came around and decided that this system was totally whack and that "overstimulated young minds could lead to nervous disorders or insanity." They picked summer for the vaca time because they thought the sweltering classrooms would promote the spread of disease (I would think that the frostbite and diseases picked up from walking miles to school every day in the winter would have been a concern?).

But yeah, thats how the current U.S. school system came into place, which I think is pretty interesting. The system has a lot of critics though and it should be no surprise to us now that other countries kids are way smarter than ours since 1906 was the first time that an official complaint was made about the school system and the "summer setback" having an effect on retention and learning. Not that I would have wanted to give up my summer vacation-- but they've got a point.

So, I hope that everyone else learned something new along with me! See you all tomorrow!