So, this is less of an opinion column and more of a … STOP HITTING YOUR BROTHER!

Sorry about that. I was saying, this isn’t really a column, it’s a … PUT THE BASEBALL BAT DOWN.

Again, sorry. This isn’t a column, it’s an emergency flare. I’m firing it off, hoping someone beyond our battered and smoking home will see it, possibly a school official or politician in my state’s capital or Washington.

But even if those policymakers notice the faint light over the horizon, I fear they won’t understand or respond. 

Because if they have school-age children … I TOLD YOU TO TURN OFF THE TV … NOW! I assume their kids have been doing summer “programs”: sleepover camps, sports camps, day camps. Or maybe they have a parent who can afford to not work during summer break and can be present and manage the children.

Or maybe, they have found the holy grail. Maybe their kids are in year-round school. 

While that system of shorter summer breaks with vacation days spread more evenly around the school year is not that common in the United States, I would argue it should be. As would my wife, who is counting down to the first day of school like it’s the end of a prison........

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