The story on changing the Lewiston school calender made me so angry that I had to respond.

Unlike the woman who said that vacations are a pain, I truly enjoy my children and the time I have with them during vacations.

The new calendar for 2008-2009 is horrible. Our students need their vacations in February and April. When students have to go for long stretches without time off, they become very stressed out, and that’s when they get sick, or just become complacent about school work.

I believe teacher workshops should be deleted from the school calender and conducted on Saturdays, or before school starts or after school ends. Those one-day workshops do nothing for the students as far as giving them a break.

Keeping students in school longer or taking away vacations will not make an uninterested student do better on achievement tests, or learn more. They will just have more time to disrupt the class and prevent students who want to learn from doing so.

Taking vacations away will only make some parents happy (those who don’t want to deal with their children).

Again, quantity will not bring quality.

Let’s concentrate more on helping students love school, be relaxed and healthy, rather than stressed out students who feel that they are in jail with little time off.

Jeanne Martin, Lewiston