Now that it’s coming to an end, I started to think about the February vacation and where it came from.  Did you know that we didn’t always have a February break? Way back when , we just got a day off for Lincoln’s birthday and a day off for Washington’s birthday. During the energy crisis, I think in the 1970s, it was decided that closing schools for a week in February, traditionally the coldest and snowiest month of the year, would save a tremendous amount of heating fuel and money for schools.  Wrapping the vacation around the Presidential birthdays was convenient, and I’m sure gave the stores a good reason to run sales.  A win-win situation.

You might be interested to know that there are schools in the last few years that have decided to do away with the February vacation break, because they believed breaking up the school year so soon after the December vacation was not helpful to students, who they felt would forget too much of what they learned by this interruption.

What do you think about this? Do you feel that we should get rid of the February vacation to help you learn more (and maybe end school a little bit earlier) or do you think we should keep things just as they are?  Remember to explain WHY you feel the way you do.