Christmas 2017: Parents live with long term pain from extended school year
HAVING children in school until right before Christmas seems great until the little ratbags turn feral in protest, writes Katie Bice.
Opinion
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I’M NOT sure we’ll make it. There has already been wailing, loud uncontrolled sobbing. For hours. It was joined by foot stamping, door slamming and screaming. The words, “I can’t survive another day” have been uttered. Finally there was moaning, complaining and illnesses that didn’t exist.
And there are still three weeks of the school year left.
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When I first realised the little blighters were going to be in school until December 22, I was delighted.
It seemed I had the chance to get ready for the festive onslaught without two loads of 20-30kg baggage weighing me down.
A Christmas miracle!
But now it’s become evident that even if I manage to drag them, possibly literally, kicking and screaming to school, the opportunity will be lost because I will have died from exhaustion.
So as keen as I was on the idea, I’m now inclined to think it borders on ludicrous for school to go so late this year. First, you’ve got a bunch of zombie kids with increasingly short fuses rocking up every day.
Most are too tired to remember their names, so learning is pretty much out of the question. After this week they’re calling off homework, reports will be done and work books are already making their way home.
If you take the Monday before Cup Day as an example, class sizes will dwindle until they are less than half full by the end.
The remaining time is filled with concerts and class parties. Which means we are turning our teachers into pretty expensive babysitters and party planners. But you can’t blame them for pulling stumps and letting the kids watch movies, do art projects and take part in group activities, otherwise called games.
Their students’ little brains are well and truly in neutral, not equipped for anything more strenuous than a dot to dot.
The older kids have already finished and by the Tuesday before Christmas most people will be calling off their working year — so why are the littlies still trudging off every day?
The only idea that seems to have any merit for filling in the time wisely is those schools which have already started their students preparing for next year. The kids might not be achieving much but at least they are getting used to their new teacher, new classmates and the idea of being a year older.
And it means they can hit the ground running in January when the whole circus kicks off again.
Katie Bice is Sunday Herald Sun deputy editor
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