Horace Mann University is off for Summer break, and what better way to keep your children learning during the summer months than through our fun-filled, unique learning experience? Summer is quickly approaching…and a lot of kids will be heading out on vacation with family and friends. I went to Horace Mann School in the Bronx, NY. The school was established in 1887 (as a private school) and moved to Riverdale in 1905. This led to the colloquial saying, “The Bronx is up and the boulevard’s down” meaning that kids from Horace Mann were street smart. More than 100 years later, it still provides an incredible education in a beautiful setting — with some of the best instructors as well.

Turns out that your mom might be right—a break from school is just what the doctor ordered. Offering students a change of pace between semesters can have a significantly positive effect on their school performance and behavior as a whole. With summer just around the corner, it’s important to plan ahead and take advantage of this time off from school.

Horace Mann Summer Vacation

In the News: How Summer Vacation Took Hold in the U.S.

Education Next

Many people think that school summer vacations are the legacy of an agrarian economy, but that’s mostly not true. Stephen Mihm of Bloomberg View takes a look at where summer vacation came from, for adults and for kids.

Before the late 19th century, few Americans took breaks from work, only the elites, Mihm notes.

The rise of the industrial economy changed all of this. But it wasn’t the factory workers toiling away 12 hours a day, six days a week, who got to take a break. It was the emerging professional, or middle classes: salaried managers, lawyers, clergymen, and others. In the second half of the 19th century, doctors began worrying about the effects of “brain fatigue” on these white-collar workers.

At this time,  Mihm writes, schools followed one of two calendars.

In rural areas, schools opened their doors in the winter and the summer, but closed their doors in the spring and fall, when parents needed children to help out on farms with planting and harvesting. Cities, by contrast, remained open all year. Neither system was conducive to bringing the kids on summer vacation.

But it was precisely this same era that school reformers began voicing the same concerns about “brain work” that doctors had raised about adults. Horace Mann, arguably the most influential school reformer of the 19th century, wrote with conviction that “health itself is destroyed by overstimulating the mind.”

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In cities, this argument had particular resonance, no doubt because poorly ventilated, sweltering classrooms were miserable for students and teachers alike. In rural areas studied by Kenneth Gold, a historian at the City University of New York, education reformers began pushing to revamp the school calendar, as well, creating the now standard school calendar.

In truth, much of the impetus for the shift likely came from the teachers themselves, who had by this time organized themselves.  They pushed for summer vacation because, well, they wanted a break.

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By the early 20th century, the idea that parents and children alike needed to rest their brains and commune with the great outdoors had become an article of faith among the middle class.

Only later did people begin to worry about the effect of summer vacation on the achievement gap and try to come up with ways to combat that. Then later we learned about summer melt.

Summer Travel Grants

Travel Grants support trips that enhance the intellectual and personal growth of Horace Mann faculty members. The travel should have a connection to a teacher’s field of study or may involve the exploration of new areas of interest for the recipient. Full-time faculty members with at least seven years of service at Horace Mann School are eligible to apply for a Summer Travel Grant. Grants are awarded at the discretion of the Grants Committee based on evaluation of the proposals submitted each year. Funds support the awarding of twelve such grants. The Business Office requires that recipients submit receipts in support of the award. The grant amount is currently $4,000 and is treated as taxable income.

The grant is intended to cover expenses specific to the employee and not the employee’s spouse, children, or significant others. Where airline travel is necessary, the School will reimburse only economy class fare. While awardees often use Travel Grants in the summer, it is possible to pursue travel during other school vacation times. Travel Grant funds must be used between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

On their return, Travel Grant recipients will be required to share an aspect of what they learned during their time away. This can take the form of a presentation to faculty and/or staff or a contribution to a curricular unit.