Summer Brain.

Summer brain.  I don't know what you call it, but I call it "summer brain."  You know, when you start getting restless at work somewhere around early May.  Your productivity slows to a halt.  You can't focus... your brain shuts down.  You find yourself staring out your window, wishing you could go enjoy the warmth of the day.  The sun is shining, the grass is green... and you're sure the birds are chirping, though you can't hear them because your window doesn't open.  You look at people outside and shoot them death stares.  You begin to hate children because they get a summer break.  Summer.  What is summer to the working world?  Depression and distraction.  That is summer brain.  

Why do we get summer brain?  I blame the school system.  I went to school for twenty years.  For twenty years, I got summers off... at least to some extent.  You went to school for 9 months, then you got 3 months "off."  That's how it worked.  And, then, you graduated, and somehow you were expected to just magically come up with three extra months of brain activity that never existed before.  Plus, you are expected to be able to put in those extra months during three months that you least want to spend inside.  

Why can't schools have "winter break" instead of "summer break"?  No one cares about being penned up inside during December.  Plus, all the holidays are in the winter: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's... Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day... Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day.  What does summer have?  Independence Day.  Much easier to work school around one holiday than, like, ten.  And, don't forget... people are already depressed during the winter!  You are barely making an impact by taking away a winter break once the children become adults.  You aren't ruining the fantastic summer that they could be having.  You are simply making them clean their cars of snow a few extra days.  "Losing" winter is much less traumatic than "losing" summer.  You can't miss something you never had, right?  

I'm sure school breaks were positioned in the summer for lots of good, old-timey reasons.  Like, the young'uns had to be home to help on the farm during the growing season.  Or, it was just too dadgum hot to stick a bunch of kids in a room and expect them to behave.  Fact is, those old-timey reasons just don't stand up anymore.  Get with the times, people!  Summer break is no longer the only way to go.

I advocate that we start "winter break."  Sure, a bunch of kids will hate it at first.  But, eventually they will forget that summer break ever existed, and they will all be saved a load of grief and depression as adults.  And, they would thank us for it.

Together, we can put an end to "summer brain."