Holidays...

Ah, summer. A proper summer for once, not two hours of warm weather followed by a gust of wind, a cloud, then torrential rain. This is what I remember of summer when I was young - endless weeks of sun, hanging out in the garden, by the local outdoor pool. The summer holiday defined each year as I grew up; it was during the summer holiday that I fell in and out of love, hung out with my friends, and, away from the relentless routine of term time, figured out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.
But the long summer break is also, let's be honest, a pain in the butt for working parents. Week upon week to fill, to find cover for, to occupy and, hopefully, educate a bit.
And now change may be on the horizon; Michael Gove is encouraging schools to break free of the shackles of the traditional three term and long summer holiday. He envisions a future where schools work to their own timetable, perhaps with four terms and shorter holidays, or possibly just much longer terms.
Which should be great news for working parents. So why am I not convinced? I think, if I'm honest, because when it comes to childhood I'm a romantic at heart. I want for my children what I had; I want them to enjoy these precious years. I want them to get bored and be forced to be creative, inventing games, turning cardboard boxes into spaceships or hospitals. As they get older I want the long summer holiday to be the time they turn to books, discovering whole worlds and characters. I want summer holidays to be turning points, like they were for me: learning to ride my bike one year; conquering a particularly high tree in the park the next; being allowed to walk around to my friend's house ON MY OWN the year after that... And I know that the reality isn't going to be like that; mostly they'll be doing various activity camps to keep them amused. My parents were teachers; child care wasn't a major issue whereas most working parents have to rope in grandparents, neighbours and others to help them through. But still I feel that a long summer break is important.
The truth is that education has ratcheted up in the past few years. There are exams virtually every year; the pressure starts much younger. And with university fees increasing, students are going to want to get bang for their buck on their degree courses; already, universities are looking to condense degree courses to one or two years, and why not? If you're paying for your degree and getting into serious debt, the sooner you can get out and get working, the better.
But where is the time for growing up? Where is the time for contemplating your navel, exploring new ways of doing things, challenging your parents' value system, discovering the world? I did all of those things and some. I took a year out, and then studied philosophy at university. How many children of the future will be able to do that? To study a subject for three whole years that has no direct relevance in the workplace? Very few I suspect. Instead they will go straight from exams at school to an 18 month degree course in something that will make them super-employable, and then they'll be into the world of work. Which is great. Obviously. God knows our economy could do with highly skilled, motivated young people joining the (hopefully soon to be growing) work place.
But before they get to that point, I hope they can at least hold on to their endless summers stretching ahead, full of promise and potential, shedding the skin of the previous academic year, ready to start anew in September, refreshed, replenished.
And it also means that the bitter pill of summer ending is sweetened slightly by the prospect of your child/children finally going back to school...