The SPICE of Summer, Part 1

When was the last time you had a really chill summer? One where you could just sit back and relax? One without duties or obligations?

It seems that the older you get, the less summer you have. Summer goes from endless days of swimming and chilling— to summer assignments, internships, and jobs.

In some ways, it’s strange that we even have such a long break in the first place. For that matter, why summer? Why not a three-month break in winter, say, or spring? What do we do with our summers? What does taking three months off do to teachers? Students? 

The beauty of our interconnected world is that something as small as a school’s summer break can have such a rich web of factors tied to it. Today, we’ll explore these threads in a two-part series looking at the “SPICE” of Summer: The social, political, interactive, cultural and economic factors that make-up summer break. 

A common explanation for summer break is that children were needed during the summer to work on the farm, and thus they received the summer off for practicality. 

However, it turns out that the opposite is true. Peak farming times are in the fall and spring, when harvests come in. Schools were arranged on a summer and winter term for rural areas, and in urban cities such as New York, all-year classes were provided. (Can you imagine?)

Imagine New York in the 1840s, in the heat of summer, with buildings made of brick and lacking air conditioning. Not a pretty sight. Many well-off families left the cities during the summer to escape the heat.

This made summer the logical time for urban schools to close their doors. When reform movements of the nineteenth century (remember that from APUSH?) called for “compulsory attendance for all children, a longer school year, and increased teacher preparation”, they also began pushing for rural school schedules to look like urban ones. 

Although many schools still took breaks to accommodate their communities (can’t teach an empty room), summer vacations became the norm of society by the turn of the 20th century. 

The lifestyle of urban dwellers and the work of reformers created the summer vacation we have today. 

The politics of summer vacation aren’t exactly about candidates or controversial policies (although politicians do have their own share of vacation woes) but rather: the income inequality gap. 

Brian Foutz, another content creator for Fiveable, has written a wonderful article about the "summer slide"(when student’s educational skills drop over the summer) and how it affects students.

(I can relate on a personal level; during the summer before my fourth-grade year, I forgot all of my multiplication facts. I’m still waiting for them to come back.) 

The summer slide is one of the long-cited reasons people give for shortening or abolishing summer vacation competely. However, there’s another aspect to it. A study written by Professors Quinn and Polikoff in September of 2017 (originally found from Mr. Foutz’s article) reports that,“income-based reading gaps grew over the summer, given that middle class students tended to show improvement in reading skills while lower-income students tended to experience loss.” 

Why is this? As The Economist reports in 2018, "Poor children tend to be the worst affect [during summer], since rich ones typically live in homes full of books and are packed off to summer camp to learn robotics, Latin or the flute." Children from higher-income households can afford summer enrichment programs that help mitigate the effects of the summer slide. On the flip side, lower-income families usually can't do this.

One factor in this is the strain summer vacation puts on finances. For three months of the year, families have to provide around-the-clock care and meals for all school-aged children. Even for those who can afford childcare, they must suffer considerable expense. Pat Garofalo of The Week reports in August of 2018 that, “...families can expect to spend about 20 percent of the income they make during the summer on the child care expenses they incur when school is out...”

Fortunately, many school districts are working to mitigate these effects by: providing meals all throughout the year and providing cost reduced after-school care programs. Lawmakers and non-profit organizations are also taking note.

When you think of a vacation, you probably think of traveling. You'd be correct. According to Kenneth Kiesnoski of CNBC, writing in June of 2019, “...just about half of us [Americans], more or less, are hitting the road — literally or figuratively — in the next three months.” The article goes on to report that about 83% out of those surveyed are taking their vacation within the US— and 64% are driving as a result. This speaks to the prevalence of car usage in the United States, as well as just how large and exciting the country is!

Regardless of if they’re hiking Alaskan mountains or getting dazzled by the bright lights of NYC, the vacations they take are likely to follow the same few veins. Victoria Elmwood of Jstor Daily reports in June of 2018 that “Scholarship on tourism and vacation suggests that there are actually five distinct kinds of vacations that people these days tend to take...” They are: The Paradise (beach and hotel resorts), The Wild (safari trips, camping), The Ruin (visiting historical sites), The Living Culture (a trip to explore another culture) and The Playground (amusement or casino parks). 

These categories seem to apply to people around the world, as she goes on to say (about Living Culture vacations) that “The American tourist returning from India with a new, enlightened sense of spirituality is as commonplace as the Japanese tourist bearing albums full of photos taken in European capital cities.”

These vacations seem to be consistent across time as well; the beach vacation we go on today is likely to follow the same vein as one they took in the 1940's. (I guess some things never change...)

The article, linked above, goes on to discuss the ways in which popular vacation areas-and the locals that live there-can be harmed by the tourists that visit. 

That concludes Part One of, “The SPICE of Summer.” Tune in during August for Part 2: Culture and Economics! 

Image by นิธิ วีระสันติ from Pixabay

Agrarian roots? Think again. Debunking the myth of summer vacation's origins by Saskia de Melker and Sam Weber on PBS

Summer Break Is Important to Students and Families by Joe Matthews on the Los Angeles Times

The guide to a political vacation by Katie Glueck on Politico

Build Some Schemata and Skip the Summer Slide by Brian Foutz on Fiveable

Why We Should Get Rid Of Summer Vacation by Conor Clarke on The Atlantic

Summer learning loss: What is it, and what can we do about it? by David M. Quinn and Morgan Polikoff on The Brookings Institute

School summer holidays should be shorter from The Economist

America is terrible at summer vacation by Pat Garofalo on The Week

Is Summer Breaking America's Schools? by Seth Cline on the US News and World Report

The National Summer Learning Week Home Page

Here’s where Americans are vacationing this summer — and what they’re spending by Kenneth Kiesnoski on CNBC

The Five Types of Summer Vacation by Victoria Elmwood on JSTOR Daily