For those approaching half a century, gary lewis and the playboys made that monster hit ” i’ll see you in september ”

The rains are with us already indicating the fading of summer. To everything there is a season. But in the tropics where we are, we only have the sun and the rains, the wind and the storms.

We can’t have summer all throughout, or we transform ourselves into a sahara .  Forests we’re used to, never a desert.

With the changing of the seasons, so too are we reminded of the seasons of our lives. The passage of time when the sun erupts in the east, the high noons, and the rituals of the sun burying itself.

And so summer has scurried ” like a frightened child ” chased by the staking rains heaving from the cheeks of heaven.

For a hundred years or as far as we can remember, school doors open in the wet month of june.

Until 1987 our elections  were in the month of november, patterned after uncle sam. While we have our elections before the year ended as the terms of office of elected officials then were completed in the month of december, just like in the u.s., (remember the january inauguration of u.s. presidents every four years?) We did not duplicate the american schedule of classes. Their summer ends in september, hence the song, ” i’ll see you in september, when summer is gone “.

In the name of practicality, we moved our elections to may every now and then. And for good reason. Hitting the trail in fine weather the candidates cover much ground and in the process helps the voter make an intelligent choice and encourages a higher voters’ turn-out. In one of his anecdotes, gov. Eladio caliwara of quezon was telling us the travails they encountered when their group barnstormed the province in the stormy months of october and november. From infanta to baler, travelling by boat he’d seen the multi-storied waves reminiscent of the skyline of hongkong! And the roads! Back then, potholes were as big as a 6×6 and mud and flood were everywhere. There was no miting de avance waiting for them then only a late dinner with some hotshots in the community. ” ayos na, ika. Bahala na kami dito “. Then off they go. And we were talking of elections.

Why then do we open our classes in june when typhoons make a beeline in all our areas of resposibility? Why give convenience to our politicians who give this country nothing, not even hope? Whereas in our students the future of this country belongs. While we are short of giving the dept. Of education a fighting budget, at least give our kids the benefit of fine weather. It might make them better learners!

Why not replicate it this time in the calendar of classes? It’s practical to open up in september just in time for the christmas break. The time adjustment even is in keeping with our christmas celebration, being the longest in the world. It will institutionalize holiday economics as it would foster even the annual trek by our balikbayans into the country knowing that the kids back home are on vacation.

So? “When the warm June nights surround you don’t fall under their spell……”