We all know how summer vacation can last and last, and by the end of the 12 weeks or so, our kids finally go back to school. It reminds the Gorilla of the Staples commercial. You know, the one in which the dad is pushing a cart and running through the isles singing ”It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,” as his kids hang their heads and stagger behind him miserably, pondering the fact that it’s “back to school” time. Yes, the summers are a wonderful time of togetherness and relaxation for families all over America, but by the time August ends, enough is enough, and parents are usually relieved to send their kids back to school at last! But what if summers only last about 4 weeks total, and your kids had to go to school for 11 months of the year? Would you consider it a good thing or a bad thing for your kids and for yourself? Well, that is what many schools are doing, and many more school districts are considering the idea. You might think this news is from the “are you kidding me” department, but the Gorilla assures you, it is true. Currently, approximately 3,000 schools throughout the United States, have only one month off during the summer, and then it’s right back to school again. When the Gorilla heard this, he thought it was simply ridiculous- after all, our kids work so hard throughout the school year so that they may enjoy a couple months or so rest each summer. But experts have now been looking to the trends of the Japanese and other cultures, in which school children attend school for 11 months out of the year, with a break for the month of July. The goal is to prevent kids from forgetting what they have learned during the previous year. “Tests given to kids in the spring and fall show children generally slide in math and reading during the traditional summer break lasting 10 to 12 weeks”, says Harris Cooper, director of the education program at Duke University. Still, there hasn’t been much research into whether students at schools where summer breaks are short do better than kids attending other schools. Since it is the goal of the “No Child Left Behind” law make sure that all students are reading and doing math at their grade level by 2014, there has been enormous pressure on schools to make sure this happens, even if it means reconfiguring the calendars. Currently, it is mostly elementary schools that are using the new calendars, but many school districts are hoping to get all schools on this calendar. The number of schools using the modified calendar has doubled in the past 15 years. Today, 46 states have schools operating on these calendars — up from 23 states in 1992. And now the entire Hawaiian school system is on this calendar as well, with a 7 week break during the summer. Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, says that this new calendar makes perfect sense. ”You would expect an athlete or a musician’s performance to suffer if they didn’t practice,” said Fairchild, whose organization advocates for educational summertime opportunities for kids. Many coaches of high school athletic programs are outraged at the thought of the switch. “It would have put a vacation in the middle of the football season,” said Chris Newland, a father of two and a psychology professor at Auburn University, who fought the change. “You don’t touch football here.” As for the Gorilla, he has mixed feelings about the change himself, but many parents he spoke to really like the idea, as long as it’s uniform throughout the school district for all levels including, elementary, middle and high school alike, so that everyone is on the same break and schedule. What do YOU think?