The Back Up Plan

 

Writer’s Block is ugly. Even if you are merely writing for your own enjoyment, it somehow sucks the life out of you. It’s essentially your brain engaged in hand to hand combat with your brain. 

I’m not a fan.

I’m going to pitch this one back to you this morning. Do you remember all the statewide brouhaha about starting school after Labor Day? You know, “let summer be summer” and all that? One of the things that arose from those discussions was something I had not known about. It has to do with sports.

No matter what the first day of school is, kids who play on sports teams (largely high school, yes?) come back earlier. I never played any sport, so I didn’t know. In some schools marching band also starts earlier.

So what happens as climate change is making summer temperatures hotter and hotter, and staying warmer later into September? Are we reaching a point where physical exertion in August is putting students at risk? I’m sure that there are established protocols for water breaks and so on. But is that enough? At what point do we admit we can’t keep doing things exactly as we have always done?

Heat stroke can be deadly. Has any nearby locality addressed this? Do we need to change the times of year for which schools sports are safe to play outside? Or are we going to need to construct air conditioned sports facilities to accommodate play during the ‘traditional’ seasons?

I’ve always found it odd that the one room in many schools that does not have air conditioning is the gym. This makes no sense to me. It’s my understanding that the school system has been working on improving that. 

Do you have kids who are required to come back early for sports practices? Do you know if there’s a protocol for extremely hot days? This summer when we endured a stretch of unusually high temperatures I know that there was parental concern about outdoor camps. What is the backup plan for our kids when the temperatures have become unsafe?

Do we have one? Are we working on one?

Village Green/Town² Comments