I get tired of the rest of the world giving teachers a hard time for having their summers off.  All the ribbing and negative comments about the two months of vacation time are just ridiculous.  Teachers work very hard during the school year, very hard.  My husband, a band director at the local high school, leaves for work between 5:15 and 5:30 every morning.  Most days his school obligations don't finish up until after 5:00 PM.  But it's not as if he gets home at 5:30 and doesn't think about school again until the next day, instead he gets home, visits with his family for a while and then continues working on lesson plans, upcoming field trips, and parent contacts. 

As I was browsing some school district websites recently, I was overwhelmed by the number of teachers and other staff who are spending their "two months off" participating in some sort of training or recertification course.  And for all those instances I read about, there are many more examples of teachers who are spending their summers creating entirely new lesson plans because of textbook adoptions or reassignments.  It's rare to find a teacher who spends their summer completely detached from the school-world.

Teachers provide an invaluable service to the community.  They spend more time with our children than we do.  They are in a position to teach, mentor, and mold our children.  Instead of complaining about the summer break a teacher recieves, try thanking them for the sacrifices they make during the school year.  Give them a real break this summer!