From time to time, there is a debate about shortening the holidays in education. Yes, what can I say, every year someone keeps asking: Aren’t our kids getting too much rest? And teachers too. Work, go, the poor can’t find a place for their two-month vacation, while all normal workaholics plow like those on a galley. This year was no exception. RANEPA experts made an attempt to reduce the holidays. It happened again in February. But pedagogical blogs still shine. No wonder that. Today they approached the matter, and the real original – in a wink.
Often, when our schoolchildren play a record that they’ve been idle for too long, they’re driven by something like an educational need: They say that such big breaks are detrimental to developing brains, kids need to load harder so they don’t. relax. They didn’t do philosophy this year. As soon as they baited for shortening the holidays, they honestly discussed the rationalization proposal: it turned out that in the summer, the rate of injuries and even death of children rises sharply. According to RANEPA experts, the death rate among children aged 5-9 years increases by 21% during the summer months, and by a third among adolescents aged 10-14 years. And now it turns out that the school is responsible for this. Well, the people of the modern school have long been called the warehouse for children, now this is confirmed by the “experts” from education. Interesting movie.
But the even more interesting question is: Is the increased risk of injury associated with a lack of schooling in a child’s life? Yet the vast majority of public schools are not boarding schools where children both study and live. Maybe there is a seasonality factor? On hot, sunny days, children walk more often, so they break their arms, legs, get poisoned, suffocate. It would be interesting to find out if there are daily peaks in injuries and deaths among children. For some reason, everything bad in a child’s life seems to happen in the afternoon.
Or maybe the calculation is that, according to tradition, the school is so tired of children that the teenagers simply cannot afford to swim in the wrong places? Or do they really (again according to tradition) want to make school even more of a nightmare? Therefore, impose the requirements of new school hours and safety instructions in everyday life, on the street, in public places, so that it will indeed be easier for teachers to accompany unreasonable children and adolescents everywhere. Maras? So it reigns for a long time. And now, after all, if a child traveling with his family in a car gets into an accident, the police come to the school and ask the class teachers for an explanation. And summer is no exception. If something happens to their ward, the teachers will be out of vacation. Not that this somehow reduces the risk of childhood injury, but what is the difference – the nuts can always be tightened and tighter. Just in case.
But seriously, in general, so that children are not injured and killed during the holidays, it is necessary to develop a recreational infrastructure, a network of organizations for cultural and recreational recreation: increase the number of sanatoriums and camps. Obviously, this is no longer enough. Yes, it was not enough before. The sanatorium deficit has long been tried to be closed again at the expense of schools. Usually in June, a summer camp opens on the territory of almost every school. Camping at a school in the city is, of course, a rather sad option. In general, I always thought that this phenomenon is temporary, temporary. Well, it’s like a change house on a construction site. Here, they’re saying how we’re finally going to get into the congregation… ugh, advanced capitalism (with a human face, of course), we’ll build and live in hostels in all the surrounding forests, desks for folding beds in classrooms that won’t need to change, and mathematicians and physicists to work as nannies instead of doing methodical work . But nothing is more permanent than temporary.
And now they say that’s not enough, they assure that it’s not enough for schools to take care of the kids all June. Now, it looks like in June the kids will still have to study and the camps can probably be shifted to July or August. And in this case, it would seem, teachers’ vacations will have to be interrupted.
Because how else? According to the unspoken rules, a teacher cannot go on vacation in the fall or spring, no one gives. Theoretically, the reduction of summer holidays could cancel this tradition, but in practice it is unlikely. 250-300 thousand teachers are not enough in schools. There is no one to replace those who are sick, and it is absolutely wonderful to teach rather than rest teachers. It’s easier to twist the law. Again with reference to the progressive European experience.
Experts have already reminded that in many European countries, both school holidays and teacher holidays are shorter than in our country. For example, in England, Germany and Denmark, both children and teachers take a month and a half vacation in the summer. But the devil is in the details. In the same United Kingdom, not so long ago, teachers were given the right to take a year’s paid leave. True, for this you need to study for ten years. The same tradition exists in Israel, after six years of continuous teaching experience you can pause for a year of study. For example, in France, teachers’ leave lasts up to four months, although summer holidays are shorter than in Russia.
However, I am diverting the issue. It is necessary to protect the rights of teachers, but children cannot be abandoned either. What should we do? After all, even if children’s sanatoriums everywhere open overnight tomorrow, sending children to them for three months is one such option. Kids need a family! It is best for children to rest with their parents. But where are the parents? And the parents plow without seeing the white light. And grandparents too – after all, you can’t live on a pension, and now this pension has been withdrawn. And this, of course, is infinitely sad.
Employees raising children need some fringe benefits and bonuses in terms of vacation. This is ideal. But first you need to at least restore the norm. To do this, in fact, it is necessary to recreate the conditions so that the existing rights of employees are not violated. Strengthen control over labor law compliance. In a day where people are forced to work weekends and go on vacation at times not suitable for the family, the practice of extending 8 hours to 12 hours a day should be a thing of the past. When they force you to break up your vacation so that it falls on a February that no one needs for two weeks. The lawsuits need to be ended with people withdrawing from vacation for a penny of child support and threatening to be fired.
Free people from strenuous work 24/7, give them back time for their families, and children put their health at less risk. Including the children of teachers who are often the most abandoned.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.