Post Pesach (ii)

A Post-Pesach post pertaining to Pre-Pesach....

An interesting, not-often-discussed component about Pesach in Israel is the amount of vacation that students and teachers get before Pesach. This year, Pesach began on Wednesday night, April 12. All of the elementary and high schools that I know of gave their students off from school from the Monday before (April 3) or, at the latest, Tuesday, April 4. That means that students and teachers had more than a full week of school off before Pesach even began. Of course they had off all of Pesach and the day after pesach. Some schools did not have school on Friday, April 21 and only began today, Sunday, April 23, 2006. That’s almost 3 weeks off from school!

As a teacher, I can hardly complain about having a vacation. When I was in America, I became a meteorological expert on when, if, and how much snow would arrive. I became the safety expert (“If even one snow flake falls, that’s one too many; let’s call off school!”). I am the last one to call for more school.

Still, as a parent and as a teacher, I thought that having more than a week off of school before the seder - while indeed giving teachers a much-needed break - was a tad too much. By the time Purim was over, teachers barely had time to cover Pesach-topics let alone the other topics in the curriculum. And the students' vacation mindset may have detracted a bit from the seder itself and from Pesach in general.

I’m not sure there’s much I can do (or how much I want to do) about the situation. I just thought I’d voice my opinion.