August start allows better semester end

For 30 years, I taught grades 7-12 mathematics in rural Iowa. There are two main reasons to start school in August, before Labor Day.

First-semester classes need to be over before Christmas break. Coming back after break for a week or less of classes after having up to two weeks off is basically wasting those days. Christmas break is a nice, “natural” end to a semester, and if you wait until after Labor Day to start school, it is not possible to get 90 days of instruction in before Christmas.

Kids are acclimated to the heat of summer by mid-August and are not nearly as distracted by the heat then as they are when the temperatures reach into the 80s in late May and June.

Politicians have gone a long way toward making teaching a hoop-jumping, constant “reform” business that has taken much of the fun and autonomy out of the profession. Which should we value more - a few more dollars for the tourism industry or what is better for our kid's education?

LeRoy Barnhart

Edgewood