How do you feel about your summer vacation?

Summer vacation has its pros and cons for teachers. On the one hand, having a break and taking a couple of months to de-stress and regroup for the next year is healthy and relaxing. On the other hand, teachers usually don't receive wages during summer months making stress over finances a common concern. Some school districts have addressed this problem by paying teachers their annual salary over a twelve month period instead of the usual ten. It obviously means a lower monthly wage but eliminates the summer financial hardship.

The majority of teachers who took part in this poll feel that their summer vacation is too short. Less than 10% reported that it was too long. This indicates that despite whatever hardships or inconveniences the summer holds, the relaxation time is highly valued. Teachers are often parents themselves, and the summer months give them the opportunity to spend valuable time with their own children without the disruption of lesson planning and paper grading.

While many people hold the teaching profession up to a higher standard than the rest of us mere mortals, the truth is that teachers are people too. Who doesn't want longer vacations and more pay? We all do, of course, and we can't blame teachers for feeling the same way. Most of us have gone on a vacation or taken time off work only to find at the end that we didn't accomplish as much as we wanted or feel as rested as we should. Sound familiar? We all end up going back to work because we need the pay check. Why should teachers be any different?

Encouragingly, about a third of the teachers in this poll feel that summer vacation is just the right length. Many of the teachers who feel the summer is too short probably agree that financially the vacation time is just the right length, but emotionally vacations can never be long enough. The fact that so many of us buy lottery tickets hoping for a life of freedom and financial ease is evidence of this.

So, like the rest of us, teachers are stuck with the vacation time they are allotted but keep buying those lottery tickets and keep your fingers crossed. You never know when you numbers will be drawn.