Frazz by Jef Mallett for June 16, 2015

Air conditioning was hit and miss when I was a kid in the 1980’s-90’s. My guess was it had to do with when the school was built.

We want you kids to stay in school longer and longer each year! Hahahaha! (evil adult laughter, and sarcasm for those confused by humor)

I remember growing up without AC. Now I just wonder how mankind ever survived without it.

Actually, many schools are now letting out (and starting) earlier in the year than ever, in order to get as much time in as possible before standardized testing. Time after the standardized tests is considered a waste.

The old working on the farm thing had validity. In the 1970s, my wife would have children pulled out of class because “The cows got out.”

We got out of school the first week in June and did not go back until after Labor Day. Today, they get out early May, a comfortable month, and enroll by the second week in August – our hottest month. This does not make sense

Which is why that period was the closest this country is likely to come to a golden age. We were mostly at peace (compared to WW2 and the current endless/pointless wars anyway), the economy was strong, and the shift from farms to city/suburban living turned the summer into the most important lesson a lot of kids learned—that there is more to life than just going to work every day. Some of these kids taught that lesson to their parents, and for a brief time (before organized labor was outlawed) there was talk of European-style six-week vacations. Then our corporate overlords got wind of what was going on, and in short order the movement to lengthen the school year appeared. Now we’re on track to eliminate summer vacation entirely, properly preparing the next generation for its life of continuous labor.

Frazz’s author lives in the middle of Michigan. Mostly we don’t have air conditioned schools as it’s not considered necessary by most Michiganders and tax payers would not accept that cost, even for new schools.

Over the weekend our air conditioner went out. It wasn’t even a hot weekend, but we were miserable at home. Thank God for attic fans. But we were reminded that we went through K-12 and some college without AC. I don’t know how we survived.

My son’s school got A/C between his kindergarten and first grade years. That would be the summer of 2004. I don’t know how kids survived without it — we’re in Tucson, AZ, where it hits 100 in early May and the heat lasts into October.

Echoing other comments. The school year got shifted by the influence of colleges changing their schedules. When I was in grade school, school let out the week before Memorial Day and started up the week after Labor Day, and colleges were maybe a week earlier. This was important because college students were the slave labor in all of the summer camps and activity programs for little kids. in the 1980s colleges started opening in August, to fit in the full fall semester before Christmas, and then did the spring semester ending mid-May. All of the interlocking gears got thrown off.

Many teachers enjoy all of the time off practicing for their pensions.

Uh-oh, are you not aware that most teacher’s contracts allow them to receive their nine-month’s salaries in 12 pieces? If you know any teachers, ask them about this.

More teacher bashing — I’m going to listen to Albert Einstein and stop repeating a failing action (telling the truth about teachers) hoping for a different reaction (folks actually understanding the truth).

FWIW – My school’s AC is hit-and-miss at best. When we go back mid-August I expect there to be several days with temps in the classroom in the 90s. A “trouble call” to the district will result in the usual “we’re overwhelmed at this time and will get to you when we can”. I’ll bring in some fans (my own cost) and do the best to keep the kids from melting.

Michigan outlawed school before Labor Day. The tourism industry demanded it…That’s where Michigan gets most of her money from now. People spend a lot of money in the last two weeks of August. As a teacher, I believe students and teachers should be separated from each other for three months….It’s good for everybody…..

Night-Gaunt49: In my school days (1940s) only the office had air conditioners, but it seldom reached 90 during the school year. Now records of those days are eclipsed by 10-year averages, but there is no global warming, our corporate masters have said so, while dendrochronology said it should start getting colder after the 1970s. Oh well, they were right about less stable and (outside of a few pockets) wetter.

janinabarnes: Also domestics and nursing..Night-Gaunt49: True, but since the book by the dendrochronologist gets referenced by deniers in these postings who never read it, I thought I might reference it, considering I read it when it first came out. He built a good case on tree ring evidence, but the trees failed to predict human interference.

Speaking as a teacher, at first I resented the shift away from the June to Labor Day vacation, but have quickly grown to like it. In my district we let out one week after labor day and come back the second week of August. It’s a shorter break, but our school years are still 180 days. So the balance gets spread around. More time to stop and take a breather, and the pacing works out quite nicely.Here’s a typical year: We get three months of class to hit the ground running, followed by a full week off for Thanksgiving (never got much done in a three-day week anyway, when everyone’s anticipating food, travel, food, football, and food). Then three to four weeks to prep for finals and finish the semester (better than the two week January cramfests I endured in the 90s). Next is three weeks of Winter break; even following the worst holiday scrambles you still get seven more days to rest and prep for the second half. Spring is evenly divided, with the quarters falling before and after a two-week break. The pause not only refreshes waning stamina, but also gives time to prep for the testing cycle: for nearly a month on any given Tuesday-Thursday, some grade, subject, or other group gets to fill out bubble sheets or click choices on a screen for four hours. The final 6-week stretch feels refreshingly brief and easy compared to just 10 years ago. And while some still feel “robbed” of a third of their summer, 8 weeks is just right for most of us. That’s about the point at which we’re mostly wasting time anyway.

That’s all very interesting, but the strip doesn’t touch on the question “what explains the change in school schedules?”, it’s a joke around the question “does the change in school schedules explain the inadequacy of the school buildings?”