Summer "vacation"

My step-dad is a high school teacher. He and I often talk about how frustrating it can be when non-teachers tell us how lucky we are to have the summer "off." It's tricky, for sure. See, I'm at home right now (okay, today is a bad example in some ways because it's Saturday, but it could be Tuesday and I could still be at home) in my pajamas. I don't have to go to the office and I don't have to teach. I don't have to lesson plan or grade papers or go to committee meetings or go to final project defenses. Keep in mind that these are all things I like to do, but it's summer, so they're not on the to-do list. In those ways, I have the summer "off." If I want to travel, I can. I'm heading to WI for a wedding this upcoming week, for example. I'll be gone for 10 days. Then, in July, a good friend is coming to visit. These all qualify as vacation type things. Here are the hiccups, though.

First: pay. I am on a 9 month contract. I do not get paid over the summer. At all. There are ways around this, of course. I could put in for summer teaching, but then we've definitely lost the vacation part of the summer vacation argument. There are places in which you can stretch your pay out over 12 months so that you're still getting a paycheck over the summer; Kansas is not one of those places. I will not get paid again until September. Most vacations are paid vacations, and that tends to be the crux of the argument between teachers and non-teachers. This is more like being laid-off every year with the expectation that you'll get your job back in August/September.

Still, I think many people would love that option. I would love that option: to not work for 2-3 months and know that you'd get your job back at the end of that time? People would try to save $ for each summer in order to travel, to read, to work around the house, to do those things you don't have time to do when you're working. That'd be fantastic.

Let's be clear, though: that is not my summer. Yes, I'm blogging right now and yes I get to go home, but I do not have the summer off. I have a chapter draft due at the end of this month, I have to write a textbook review by the end of this month, I have another article draft I need to get done by the end of the summer and one more I'd like to at least start, I have to plan for two new classes, plus orientation, plus practicum, plus an independent study, I'm WAY behind on my own reading (holes in my knowledge that I need to fill), I have two student essays I still need to respond to plus a final project draft I need to read. These are all job requirements. So to be clear, I am not getting paid over the summer and yet I have a TON of work that absolutely has to get done, work that is necessary if I want to keep my job. And I do want to keep my job. I love working here. I love this job. And I am in fact grateful for the summer time "off" to do this work. But let's not call it vacation. It's more flexible time, yes, but hardly vacation.

This is not to say, however, that if I had a 9-5 job I wouldn't long for this flexible time. I'm sitting here now, in my home office, looking out my windows at a brief moment of gorgeous weather (the temperature is quickly climbing, 5 degrees in the last 45 minutes, but for now the windows are open), blogging because I need to get this out of my head so I can get back to work. This is a luxury in many ways. But so is the 9-5 job. I've done the 9-5 (okay, a very very little) and it has many many drawbacks. But today is Saturday. In June. And I am taking a break from work. I am working on a Saturday. I'll be working tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I'd add Thursday-infinity, except I am in fact heading home for a wedding. The wedding is on the 26th and I'll bring work home, so I'll start working again on the 25th and then again on the 27th or 28th. When I get back, I'll take a day off to unpack and recover and then will start working again. Beej will have surgery on the 8th, so I'll take that day off, and then will start working again on the 9th. Our friend Tim will be here from the 20-28th. I'll try to take a few days off then, but will also have to work while he's here. Luckily, Tim likes coffeeshops. One of the good things about a 9-5 is that there tend to be weekends, actual weekends where you're not working or feeling guilty about not working. Those are, at least for me, non-existent. And because of that, I need to get back to work (it is, after all, summer vacation).