Summer Siesta
During the school year, my day is dictated by minutes. Student arrival: 25 minutes. Math: 75 minutes. Transition to Writing: 3 minutes. Writing: 55 minutes. Morning Snack: 10 minutes. Walk to building for Art, Music, or PE: 7 minutes. I’m constantly checking the clock to gauge whether I am ahead or, most likely, behind schedule. Such is the life of a public school teacher. When I plan a learning experience, I must anticipate, to the minute, how long certain elements will take. How long will it take for students to take out their art supplies? How much time do I want to give students to discuss in their table groups? This factory model, where students are forced to learn in predetermined chunks of time, hasn’t changed in over 100 years. I’ve been a part of this system for so long that I can eat my lunch in under 10 minutes, if necessary.
Once the final bell rings for the year, and summer vacation is official, it takes me at least a week to release my mind and body from clock constraints. Suddenly, I don’t have to be ready to teach at 8:05 AM. I wake up to the sun, not my alarm clock. I have free will to use the restroom as I please and savor a cup of tea while I read a novel. I have time to watch the birds and squirrels in my backyard, and let my mind drift.
It’s a marvelous feeling to reclaim your time. During the first week of summer, my brain slowly relaxes and I begin to notice my body’s tension ease. It feels like my body has been taut for 188 days and is now beginning to slack. Days of anxiety disappear.
Slow mornings. No commitments. Nothing pressing to accomplish. No deadlines. Bird watching. Afternoon naps. These are the touchstones of my summer vacation. In most European countries, businesses close between 2:00 and 5:00 PM. There are strict noise ordinances so as to encourage an afternoon rest. Parents keep their children indoors, playing quietly, reading, or taking an afternoon nap.
The word siesta comes from the Latin word hora sexto, which means the sixth hour. It is the period of time in the day when shops in Spain, and other hot climates, close for a few hours in the afternoon, allowing people to eat, rest, and escape the heat.
I love my summertime siestas! After a “busy” morning of reading, writing, running errands, taking my kids to the pool, going on a hike, or yard work, I eat lunch and doze off for about an hour. I wake up feeling relaxed and clear headed. In fact, studies show that those who take a nap perform better in the afternoon and increase their learning ability by ten percent because sleep facilitates the storage of our short-term memory and makes room for new data. Sometimes, I even wake up feeling creative.
When I was a kid, I remember taking naps when I got home from school. I would usually drop my backpack at the garage door, poor myself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, and slink off to bed for an hour or so before starting my homework. EVery year when I speak to my students, I see that they do not get nearly enough sleep. Many stay up late playing video games, scrolling on social media, or chatting with their friends. About half of my fifth graders come to class in the morning with their Starbucks breakfast: caffeine and sugar. I wonder how my students would behave in school, and how much better they would be able to learn, if they were sleeping 9-12 hours at night, and possibly taking a nap after school.
We use caffeine to make up for a sleep deficit that is largely the result of using caffeine.
Michael Pollan
This is one of the reasons I have been advocating for a no homework policy in my school. I do not assign homework. My only exception is that I encourage my students to read for 30 minutes, if possible, each evening. I consider my class a “busy-work-free zone.” I intend for our projects to be meaningful, and I guarantee my students they have plenty of time in class to complete all assignments/projects. When students get home from school, especially at the elementary level, they need time to be kids. I wish more of my students would nap after school or go outside and play, but the reality is that many kids today are overstimulated, inactive, and hyped on sugar and caffeine.
Who knows what summer break looks like for my students? I hope they are not playing video games all day and all night. I hope they read a book for fun and eat well.
For me, my summer plans are as follows:
Write as much as possible. I’ve been participating in
’s #1000wordsofsummer and it has been so rewarding. I highly recommend her accompanying book, 1000 Words of Summer: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round and her fantastic Substack.Go outdoors. Once a week, I’m planning to go on a hike with my family. I am blessed to have been born and raised in beautiful Colorado, and we have tons of hiking trails within driving distance. I’m hoping that we may even get up to the mountains for a day trip and hike.
Sleep. I crashed during my first week of summer break. Now that I’m in summer-mode, I am getting into a routine that includes slow mornings and afternoon siestas. I plan to keep this going all summer long!
Spend time with family and friends. My family loves playing board games. For my son’s birthday, we got him a subscription to UnboxBoredom, a monthly board game subscription service. He loves it and we love playing all of the new games he’s receiving each month.
Read a ton. I love reading and I’m excited to read the stack of books accumulating on my nightstand. If you’re interested in seeing all of the books I’m planning to read, check out my GoodReads bookshelves.
Have a great week!
—Adrian
Resources
This is an excerpt from the documentary, Class Dismissed. The entire video is about homeschooling, but his clip discusses the history of public schooling and our bell schedule. If you’re interested, this is a fascinating article about the history of the school bell.
10 Famous Modern and Historical Nappers
Just in case you need to make an argument for taking more naps, here’s a list of some famous nappers. Everyone from Thomas Edison to Axl Rose were pro-nap!
Monophasic sleep patterns consist of sleeping once per day. A biphasic pattern is sleeping twice per day. Even though napping may be in our DNA, too long of a nap might not actually be good for us.
I’ve never been able to take a power nap; once I’m asleep, I’m out cold.
When so much at work has changed, why can't we shake presenteeism?
This article discusses the idea of being present to look busy instead of only being at work for the amount of time it takes to get your tasks finished. I wonder how much of this is applicable to school-aged children. School absenteeism has been a huge problem since the pandemic.
One way we could all take more naps is with a 4-day school week. I think this could encourage quality learning experience over quantity and a shorter school week could lead to more nap taking, which could lead to better performance in school performance. Some schools are experimenting with a 4-day week.
Your plans look great, hope you have a fulfilling break!
Although I'm not a teacher, I had to do more work this academic year than ever, so I can't wait for the summer break so that I can finally relax and read, read, read, read and read. And also read.
Your summer plans are very much like mine.