Summer squeeze

Marita Walton

August was still in single digits when digital school bells announced the start of another year. How can it be?

Back in the day we had the school year and we had summer; two distinct seasons that did not overlap. Each held the other at bay through some reliable reverse magnetism. We counted on it; it gave order to our days.

School administrators with varying appetites to satisfy have nibbled at both edges of summer, one bite at a time, for so long, that we hardly noticed the encroachment onto what was once protected airspace. Summer got caught in the squeeze.