I have been bored and tired lately but I'm not academically disenfranchised. Or am I? Hmmmmm...

The academic year is itself based on the seasons. It used to be that winter was the time when outside work was curtailed till Spring, so school was held in Winter. School let out for the summer because that's when a lot of outside work was done, farming, construction, travel, markets, and the kids were needed to help with farming and work around the house, and errands. Now that so many jobs are in temperature controlled offices, going outside is for vacations, eh? We have more emphasis now on education and college than earlier days when the average was just to finish high school and then off to apply the woodworking classes, auto shop classes, homemaking classes, practical physics, and build an America that was family oriented, manual labor oriented. Now all that is gone and we get into computers early, no more homemaking classes, no more trade preparation, no more music.. It's year after year after year of 'education' for jobs that use brains indoors where seasons don't matter any more.

Arfie- I teach, so I'm still victim to the cycles. I guess so is everybody with children, as they have the kids home all summer and are scrambling to entertain them.

I find I don't do well with too much down time, so I sign up for the self punishment of summer school. So I think the key is to stay busy.

On the up side, I get a little excited surge/creative high and feel nostalgic in September. I love the fall with a passion and I'm most happy, I think, then. Color of the leaves, smell of fires, blazing sunsets, hay rides, apples... I love everything about it.

xa1nbowxR- what you wrote it partly true, but a bit mythologized. Harvesting STARTED in the fall, so that's when school was NOT in session. There's not actually that much to be done on the farm in the summer. They closed due to spread of disease (the heat, as you mentioned) and school reform.

Many kids dropped out after 8th grade and there was no shame in that.

I for one, think that college is entirely overrated. So many parents talk about "Oh, my kid's going to college!" Yeah, maybe. But will they GRADUATE??? I teach your kid... good luck with that.

I wish there'd be more pride and honor in the trades. And I echo your sentiment for the family/home oriented arts. But those are being eliminated from schools everywhere.

And I cringe every time I see ads for cyber schools. I think it's BS. How'd you like to go to a dentist that was cyber schooled???

Academic is not in my this life time vocabulary...

But I do think there is a collective feeling that changes for one reason or another. Depending what going on politically, world wide, academic, in many cases that is one is sensitive to it we "pick up" on it...

I meant IF one is sensitive we pick up on it.

Welp, Im still stuck in the school cycle. Though Im ok with that, as college cycle is not so bad. Only time it gets frustrating is that finals week right before Christmas. Someone did not think that through.

Im just happy Im not in the K-12 cycle, THAT was aweful.

While I am involved in the academic life, either as a student or as a parent, responding to the ups and downs of the cycle makes sense.

It is those disenfranchised years that find me surprised to be continuing the cycle, even when it is counter-productive. Most of the world's work force does not run to the cycle, but continue the ups and downs of the cycle. Even if you drop out of school in Jr high, by then you already have 12 or 13 years of the conditioning. The formative years...

I find myself more excited and interested during the autumn. It is my favorite time of year but I'm not sure how much it has to do with the academic cycle.
I think we should go to year round school with ample vacation time. I could also happily get rid of daylight savings time.

Great thread.

I'm with you, Cecil. If I were queen of the world, I'd do 6 weeks on, 2 weeks off.

Oh, and a four day work week with two more hours built in on the front and back ends.

Poof! Just solved all my problems!