Reinstein: Education overload: Are we asking too much of our young scholars?
By Ted Reinstein/ Local Columnist
Sunday, October 1, 2006

When your child is starting school for the first time, as mine just did, I suppose the phrase "back to school" does not technically apply. For parents, let’s face it, fall forever feels like "back to school." Fall always comes with a melancholy that can only be traced to the singular sense of loss we felt as kids when those two blessed months of summer vacation came to an end, always too soon.

For many of today’s kids, those two months between grades have shrunk considerably. Millions of kids now have their carefree summers shortened by some form of organized activity, be it camp as we (used to) know it, or, more frequently now, some form of academic-oriented program where computers take the place of canoes, and the pressure is more on practicing for tests than on hitting a softball or shooting an arrow.

School summer vacations have shrunk further as more and more cities and towns begin the school year in late August, rather than the traditional post-Labor Day start. Some school systems are looking at doing away with summer vacation as we’ve known it entirely.

So much for those June cries of, "See you next year!," and those endless summer days of delight and discovery. No Child Left Behind? More like, no one left behind to be a child.
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