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This would already be the natural course of things if we got rid of the fully retarded summer break. I don't know the origin of this practice (farming?) but the longitudinal data is indisputable; backsliding occurs in the summer, child abuse goes up, crime also goes up.
Furthermore, we have this horrible discontinuity where, from ages 6 - 22, people develop a "I have a long break to look forward to" mentality and then, upon entering the workforce, realize that isn't the case.
According to Google, it was more about being unable to adequately cool the schools during the hottest part of the year, that's why is doesn't include time for planting or harvest (but rural schools where children were actually needed did).
My city still isn't able to install AC in the older schools, despite exceeding 100F on hot days, and keeps discussing less school in July, but just suffers through it due to state requirements. My mother spent some of her youth in Houston, and said that they spent much of summer at the beach, but they still had several months of miserable hot classrooms surrounding that.
I would like to trade three weeks of summer break for two weeks of fall break. June is alright, but in July we fall into just sitting around in front of the swamp cooler for days on end.
Wow, that's depressing. I understand the physical limitations through the 1940s,50s,60s,70s (in some parts of the country). Nowadays, however, this should be able to solved for a small amount of money. However, I can already imagine how "School upgrades" plus union labor plus public procurement of goods and services means installing 10 A/C units on the roof equals a $10 million contract that takes place over four years.
Yeah, the reasoning I heard was that if they update the AC, they have to update some large amount of infrastructure -- maybe ducts and roofing? Which is extremely expensive. I also heard that LA has more potholes than necessary because if they repave the roads, they have to make the sidewalks accessible, which is much more expensive than the repaving itself.
I hav seen several bring up ensuring AC for all as a high leverage improvement for schools, that basically all children, parents, and teachers would appreciate.
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