Countdown to Summer...or not

I was walking through one of our schools on the second to last day of school, when a fifth grader passed me and made a comment.
"It looks empty in here."
She kept walking slowly as we briefly conversed about things coming down off of hallway and classrooms walls in preparation for summer break.
"It makes me feel lonely"
I asked her if she wanted the school year to come to a close, and she shook her head no before turning the corner and heading out of my site.

We do it every year. Whether it's a classroom countdown visually displaying the days until summer break, with days getting checked off or erased as the last day of school draws closer, or in the novelty t-shirts worn by staff on the final day of classes for students.

What about the students who don't want the school year to end?
What about the students who relied on your warmth, kindness, encouragement, and consistency in their lives?
What about the students who only feel safe when they are at school?
What about the students who only get a full meal at school?
And what about the students who just aren't ready to say goodbye to a favorite teacher?

It's easy to forget as we get swept up into the busyness that comes with closing out a school year, but some of our students are not looking forward to being away from school for the summer.

Think about it...if you've spent the year establishing a classroom environment; a close-knit community where students are engaged, growing, exploring, and learning every day, why should they want to leave this?
We work to make school, as Dave Burgess says, a place where students are running to get in every day...and then tell them they won't be coming for 2+ months...and they should be happy about this?

How would you feel if someone was counting down the days until they weren't going to see you every day?

I do believe that these traditions are essentially traditions; things we've "always done", but it's time to think about how this makes our students feel.

Let's change the way we celebrate the end of the school year and put our kids first.