I teach world history at a suburban middle school and every year we have a discussion on the school calendar (stemming from our study of the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s).

I tell my students that the current three-month summer vacation did not start as a “vacation,” but as time off from school for older children to go work on their parents’ farms. I also propose to them that since this is no longer the case, we should revise our ideas of vacations.

There is, of course, the usual grumbling about not giving up summertime, until they hear my alternative.

I set forth a school calendar where school begins the first monday in September. Students attend for three straight months, September, October, and November – without any breaks. (Thanksgiving, traditionally but arbitrarily set in November, is moved to the first week of December. Other “Federal” holidays are not observed by schools.)

School restarts in January, again for three straight months – January, February, and March – again with no breaks However, the entire month of April is set aside as Spring Break.

Then comes the hardest sell: school resumes in May, and again goes three straight months: May, June, and July, with no breaks. But the entire month of August becomes Summer Break.

The advantages I submit are that students have less time to “forget” previously accumulated knowledge, and that they get three seasonally-distinct, month-long breaks. This might even allow for students to graduate in less than 12 years. I won’t claim to get 100 percent approval for my proposals, but I am usually surprised that at least half of my students think it sounds reasonable.

Over the years, I have also heard counter-proposals. My wife, who is also a teacher, proposes a 4-day academic week (with longer school days to make up for the lost time), and Fridays reserved for athletics and non-academic endeavors – field trips, school plays, band concerts, and the like.

I would be interested in hearing other adjustments to the current calendar.

Thank you for helping to bring this often-controversial topic to a discussion in the public forum. The Greeks and the Romans did it, so why can’t we?