School Time, Winslow Homer, 1874

What are the three best things about teaching? – June, July and August

Narrative art is art that tells a story, which is why I like the paintings of Winslow Homer so much. His work often tells a story. Today’s story/painting is “School Time”, a picture of idyllic 19th-century pastoral life. The scene is a schoolyard, outside a little red country schoolhouse. The teacher is calling the students into class, to begin the school day. Today was Anne’s last school day for this academic year. School’s out for summer, if not forever, as the Alice Cooper song went. As a kid, I always loved the end of the school year. Full of anticipation, it was often the highpoint of summer vacation, before set in the tedium of the dog days. Observing Anne, it is now apparent that the end of the school year is just as exciting for the teachers as it was for the students. We’ll go out to dinner tonight, to celebrate the end of her school year. Dinner will be at Las Palmas, where the food is good, and the margaritas are oh so fine. Maybe as in the past, there will be a few drunken teachers there too, also celebrating the end of the school year. Even if we get there at six tonight, they will have had a few hours head start. Anne has her summer all mapped out. June will be a busy month, full of planned projects and then it’s off to the cabin for her and a couple of months of kicking back on the beach.