Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
How are you spending the summer solstice?
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 24, 2019, 12:31:22 pm ---Then for a while I suppose it was because schools lacked air conditioning, and also that waiting until after the holiday helped protect resorts and tourism -- obviously lots of families liked taking trips around Labor Day (first Monday in September, Brian) to get the extra day off. So for a long time the state required schools to wait until after the holiday. Then at some point that law was lifted and schools started opening the week before Labor Day or even into late August, which I find abhorrent. The classrooms are still hot because many schools still don't have AC. The start of school is also a really strong cultural/psychological signal of the beginning of fall. Let's not make fall come any earlier than it has to, Legislature.
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In Pennsylvania it can be beastly hot in September. I remember once when I was in junior high school, and I was a very overweight kid, it was so hot in school that I arrived home clearly suffering from heat exhaustion. My mother had me sit in a bathtub of tepid water till I cooled down.
Not only do schools lack air conditioning, or even fans, they also lack even cross ventilation because, of course, one of wall a classroom is windows, but the other is a solid wall.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 24, 2019, 01:22:01 pm ---Here in Colorado, school starts in early to mid-August! for Pete's sake. But there's a break in October for a few days. It was set by the teacher's union.
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We have that, too. It's called MEA, for Minnesota Education Association, which holds its convention then. We have had that since I was in elementary school, and probably long before. It's taken on a life of its own as a holiday because it's usually like Wednesday through Friday. So people with kids plan trips out of town "during MEA."
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 01:49:13 pm ---I was a very overweight kid
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:o :o I didn't know that.
In 13 f'in years I don't believe I've seen you mention it (not that I've read every single post you've ever written, of course).
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on June 24, 2019, 01:49:13 pm ---I was a very overweight kid.
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--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 24, 2019, 04:06:41 pm --- :o :o I didn't know that.
In 13 f'in years I don't believe I've seen you mention it (not that I've read every single post you've ever written, of course).
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Yes, I was, and here's the weird thing. There is a stereotype of people gaining "the Freshman ten" pounds when they go off to college. Instead, I lost weight, a lot of weight. But it's all come back in, oh, about 40 years. ;D
brianr:
It always amazes me that the USA, being so much more religious than Australia or NZ does not have Good Friday as a public holiday. Over here no business or supermarkets are allowed to open. In Dunedin there is no pubic transport. Only small family businesses and petrol stations operate. Easter Sunday is similar but not so restrictive. Last year a law was passed in parliament allowing city councils to decide about businesses operating on Easter Sunday. Dunedin voted to remain closed. The only other similar days are Christmas day and the morning of Anzac day. I would have been horrified if expected to teach on Good Friday.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: brian on June 24, 2019, 04:46:21 pm ---It always amazes me that the USA, being so much more religious than Australia or NZ does not have Good Friday as a public holiday. Over here no business or supermarkets are allowed to open. In Dunedin there is no pubic transport. Only small family businesses and petrol stations operate. Easter Sunday is similar but not so restrictive. Last year a law was passed in parliament allowing city councils to decide about businesses operating on Easter Sunday. Dunedin voted to remain closed. The only other similar days are Christmas day and the morning of Anzac day. I would have been horrified if expected to teach on Good Friday.
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I guess the cultural imperative to have Christmas as a holiday is so strong as to override other concerns. I have no idea why the change in status of Good Friday was made. I know only the situation where grew I was raised. The US may be a great deal more religious than Australia and New Zealand, but perhaps somebody decided that having Good Friday as a holiday amounted to an unconstitutional favoring of one religion--Christianity--over others. Nobody so far as I know has ever had a holiday for the Jewish High Holy Days, for example.
Of course Easter Sunday isn't an issue because it's always a weekend.
It continues to surprise me that we do not have a holiday for Veterans Day (Nov. 11). Government offices are closed, mail is not delivered, and, at least in Pennsylvania, liquor stores are closed, but for the rest of us, it's business as usual.
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