EDUCATION MATTERS:Notes to think about in new year

When I get back with my students after the Christmas break, I like to hear what they did with their two weeks of freedom.

The most common response is, "It went by too quickly" or "It wasn't enough time." Etc., etc.

That pretty much describes every generation of students that ever was. A two-week respite from the salt mines of the classroom is, was and always will be a pure pleasure, greater even than the three months off in summer. Back-to-school in September came after three months off. After that, there was a general readiness to return. The two weeks in December are different. They come toward the end, and thus are an interruption of, the first semester. It always makes starting up again after this recess that much more difficult.

If we had started school in mid-August, this winter vacation would come at the end of the semester, making it a more natural break. There are a number of sound educational reasons to reconfigure the school calendar to start earlier, but it won't happen. Why it won't happen is a question that gets no good answer from the people who set policy.

But I digress.

"So who saw something, heard something, experienced something, did something?" I ask the class.

It has been two weeks. Did you all crawl out of your bed at noon and work your way into a couch/computer chair every day? Heads all over the room nod yes. This is their cute way of mocking me.

"OK, here's a better question," I say. "How do you see the year ahead? Are you satisfied with things or do you want to change something, improve something, make this a better year than the last?"

It's interesting that the most common response to that is, "I want to be less lazy." I think these kids are fully aware that they are living more sedentary lives than any generation that came before them. I think also that there is a voice, perhaps somewhere deep inside, that tells some of these kids that they need to get out and actually do more things. Give the text-messaging thumbs a rest, move away from the keyboard and all screens, get upright and start moving the legs.

Remove the iPod ear plugs and plug in to the real world, and realize that as much as the brain likes to be entertained and stimulated, the body is no less in need of attention.

Perhaps there is another voice that screams to them of an obesity epidemic sweeping the country, with our children leading the trend.