Word: summers
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Behind this position is a political calculation that says less about Obama's own affection for the town-hall format than his campaign's determination to maintain its core advantages through the summer. If this election is decided by crowd size, teleprompters and televised speeches, Obama will almost certainly win in November. But if McCain brings Obama to his level, where the Republican can shine, then the outcome is anyone's guess...
This month millions of American kids flee the tyranny of the classroom bell for lifeguard stands, grandparents' homes and sleepaway camps. But summer vacation hasn't always been a birthright of U.S. schoolchildren. In the decades before the Civil War, schools operated on one of two calendars, neither of which included a summer hiatus. Rural schooling was divided into summer and winter terms, leaving kids free to pitch in with the spring planting and fall harvest seasons. Urban students, meanwhile, regularly endured as many as 48 weeks of study a year, with one break per quarter. (Since education...
...1840s, however, educational reformers like Horace Mann moved to merge the two calendars out of concern that rural schooling was insufficient and--invoking then current medical theory--that overstimulating young minds could lead to nervous disorders or insanity. Summer emerged as the obvious time for a break: it offered a respite for teachers, meshed with the agrarian calendar and alleviated physicians' concerns that packing students into sweltering classrooms would promote the spread of disease...
...modern U.S. school year, which averages 180 days, has its critics too. Some experts say its languorous summer break, which took hold in the early 20th century, is one of the reasons math skills and graduation rates of U.S. high schoolers ranked well below average in two international-education reports issued in 2007. Others insist that with children under mounting pressure to devote their downtime to internships or study, there's still room for an institution that sanctifies the lazy days of childhood...
Nothing says summer in the nation's capital like tell-all testimony in front of a bunch of members of Congress with time on their hands and the fall election on their minds. On Friday the country will get a classic: the appearance of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan before the House Judiciary Committee. McClellan served as President George W. Bush's loyal spokesman for almost three years, only to surprise Washington early this month by turning on him in his new book What Happened, a 326-page indictment of an Administration he says "chose in defining moments...