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| I'm not condoning it |
The long summer break acts as a clear boundary between the academic years and is historically linked with the agricultural year when all labour was needed to help gather in the harvest.
The Bourne family used to usually have a fortnight away in self catering accommodation (with maternal grandparents) at a UK holiday resort the rest of the summer holiday time was my own and I spent or (wasted it) pretty much as I wished - holiday homework in those days was minimal, if any and tinkering (as I still do) was my occupation.
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| What more could you want? |
As a youngster I had mixed feelings over the break, missing the camaraderie of the classroom and playground (but not really the studying) - I (like many others) did used to get bored - seems that this is less of a problem for youngsters today and not something I've experienced for a long time either.
Having said that there are studies and assertions that boredom does serve a purpose and that the hyperactivity now prevalent does deny some development that 'not having anything to do' created.
There was for me a golden age from around eleven to sixteen when (in hindsight) I used to run pretty free, I was not a model child or even someone I'd recommend other youngsters emulate but in 1970's semi- rural Essex the worse you could get up to was pretty mild by today's measures.
Memory is a troublesome companion who throws us deceptive messages - end of term with Fire extinguishers being set off to the soundtrack of Alice Cooper, wandering across fields of corn and an illicit beer, is this what happened?
At 16 things changed as I got a holiday job and (I suppose) became an apprentice in the rat-race but before that I was pretty care-free.
The chance to run free though does teach you things and it is a time I look back on with some warmth - hopefully the modern youngster will have something similar to reflect on when six weeks no longer feels like a lifetime,
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