*Originally posted February 16, 2024*
It's easy to be cynical about February vacation. If there were a "dog days" of winter in New England, it would be February. Everything is either a sheet of ice or the temperature spikes to a whopping 38 degrees and the snow turns to a muddy sludge.
The kids have long since lost all the mittens. Is he wearing an oven mitt out there? Whatever. They get off the bus carrying their jackets, daring you to criticize the exact same anti-coat rhetoric you once spewed to your exasperated parents.
They've been in perfect health for 96 total hours since the ball dropped on 2023. And now they get some more time off, which would be mentally draining if my wife and I weren't already figuring out how to avoid this exact challenge come June and July.
But then I think of the poor teachers. They have watched in real-time as the mittens vanish into the ether. While the kids cough into each other's mouths and put their gross Cheeto fingers into the glitter.
It's a branding problem. It's not "February Vacation." Who could possibly get behind that? That's as compelling as "Mandatory Team-Building" or "Presidential Primary."
This is a celebration that Mrs. McDermott hasn't punted your kid into a snow bank yet. They had it coming, but she showed restraint. Teaching is a shockingly hard job. I read a book to my daughter's class a couple of weeks ago, and it was exhausting. In one breath some kid I'd never seen before in my life told me I read so fast he couldn't understand a word I said, AND that he didn't need to practice reading because he was so good at it. They said this WHILE I was reading! The teacher gave me a look that said "Every goddamn day with this kid." I believed her.
I'll spare you the diatribe about how people who whine and moan about their tax dollars need a less embarrassing hobby - LARPing or attending political rallies or ANYTHING other than telling me their grand tax reform strategy. These are the people who say "Hey, they get half the year off, and only work six hours a day, why should they make the same as me!?"
I don't know, Larry. Not everything is about you? Do you even balance your own checkbook? Tell me again how you're qualified to handle municipal tax appropriations and accounting? These people are delusional and exhausting. Plus, precisely zero teachers show up when the bell rings and then peel out at 2:45. I would defend them if they did, but that's seldom the case. Loads of the teachers at my kids' school participate in after-school activities, help out with sports, endure whatever madness happens at PTA meetings, and I'm sure plenty of other not-exactly thrilling-sounding activities.
This February vacation, when your littles are arguing over something incomprehensible while you're on a client call, or getting glitter all over your floor, or coughing into YOUR mouth, take a moment to appreciate the teacher who undoubtedly is not paid enough for this cruel and unusual punishment. This is their vacation. Send them a nice bottle of wine with a note on it - "Happy Pedagogical Pause. Sorry and/or Thank you for dealing with my kid for six months."
It's the least we could do.