From: Hatunen on
On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:30:28 -0800 (PST), Transfer Principle
<lwalke3(a)lausd.net> wrote:
>So even though the summer break in Japan occurs at around the
>same time as in Europe, the actual school year (i.e., when
>students advance one grade) starts April 1st, not September.
>
>India also differs from most northern hemisphere nations:
>
>"In elementary and high school, the school year is usually
>from June to April, while in Universities it is from August
>to April."

One of the main reasons for the timing of the summer school break
in the USA was the once largely agrarian society of family farms
that needed the kids available to work in the fields during the
growing season.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen(a)cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
From: sjdevnull on
On Feb 24, 3:49 pm, Hatunen <hatu...(a)cox.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:30:28 -0800 (PST), Transfer Principle
>
> <lwal...(a)lausd.net> wrote:
> >So even though the summer break in Japan occurs at around the
> >same time as in Europe, the actual school year (i.e., when
> >students advance one grade) starts April 1st, not September.
>
> >India also differs from most northern hemisphere nations:
>
> >"In elementary and high school, the school year is usually
> >from June to April, while in Universities it is from August
> >to April."
>
> One of the main reasons for the timing of the summer school break
> in the USA was the once largely agrarian society of family farms
> that needed the kids available to work in the fields during the
> growing season.

Even within a given state, school schedules often vary based on local
agrarian needs.

Like many schools in potato-farming regions of Maine, this one starts
school a week earlier than most of the state and takes a week off in
October for the potato harvest:
http://www.sad32.org/calendar.html
Oct. 5-9 Harvest Break
From: Hatunen on
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:44:53 -0800 (PST), "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim(a)verizon.net> wrote:

>On Feb 24, 1:38�pm, Hatunen <hatu...(a)cox.net> wrote:
>> On 24 Feb 2010 09:31:13 -0800, R H Draney <dadoc...(a)spamcop.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >Evan Kirshenbaum filted:
>>
>> >>"Peter T. Daniels" <gramma...(a)verizon.net> writes:
>>
>> >>> But since we know it's a tall tale, we know that it is not "true" or
>> >>> "reportage." What the story tells us is that the most recent teller
>> >>> has a low opinion of American Indians, Irishmen, or (in my
>> >>> hypothetical), African Americans.
>>
>> >>What's "reportage" is the "I've heard it commented". �If Dave, living
>> >>in Arizona, has heard it told about Indians, then that's the tale he's
>> >>reporting having heard. �And the choice of ethnicity is an interesting
>> >>part of the tale, giving insight into the attitudes of those who tell
>> >>it (as distinct from those who merely report having heard it).
>>
>> >Knowing some of these peoples, I can imagine the Apache telling such a tale
>> >about the Papago*, or the Navajo telling it about the Hopi....r
>>
>> >* Yes, they're "Tohono O'odham" now, but in the world of the joke, the old
>> >politically incorrect terms continue to flourish....
>>
>> Just to be fair here, I heard it when I was living in Ohio...
>
>So someone in Ohio thought it was more politically correct to insult
>American Indians than Hibernians.

We had a lot more Hibernians than Amerinds...

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen(a)cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
From: Hatunen on
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:22:54 -0800, "Skitt" <skitt99(a)comcast.net>
wrote:

>Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>> Do the Pacific states get the same coverage we do?
>
>We Californians are in the same time zone as Vancouver, but a lot of the
>coverage we see in prime time is tape from an earlier event. I can see many
>results on the Web before I watch them on TV.

NBC news comes on at 6:30pm here, while Olympic coverage begins
at 7:00pm. On the news a talking head will tell us to look away
while they show the Olympic results.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen(a)cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
From: Evan Kirshenbaum on
"Skitt" <skitt99(a)comcast.net> writes:

> You're being robbed. At Lockheed, when I was still working, we got
> an average of 13 paid holidays per year. Most of them were the days
> between Christmas and New Year's (inclusive, of course).
>
> The others were Memorial Day, Independence Day (and the adjacent day
> if there was only one day between ID and a weekend), Labor Day, and
> Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after it.
>
> The days off at Christmas time varied in number, as there was usually
> an extra day or two thrown in, depending on what day of the week the
> actual holidays fell.
>
> A long time ago, we didn't get the time off between Christmas and New
> Year's. Then the company realized that no one did any actual work
> during that period and decided to institute the holiday schedule I
> described above. Everyone liked that, and the company saved a lot of
> money, practically shutting down all the plants.

They did the same thing for us starting a few years ago, except they
said "We're closing. You *will* take vacation. If you don't have
enough vacation you can borrow against next year's". So essentially,
you can look at it as having taken several days of vacation away from
everybody in exchange for an equivalent number of holiday days.
(Unless you leave before the end of the year, of course, in which
case they have to pay you for those "holidays".)

--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The reason that we don't have
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |"bear-proof" garbage cans in the
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |park is that there is a significant
|overlap in intelligence between the
kirshenbaum(a)hpl.hp.com |smartest bears and the dumbest
(650)857-7572 |humans.
| Yosemite Park Ranger
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/