Though it’s widely believed that the origins of the summer break were to allow the children of the 19th century to work on their family’s farm during the busy growing season, this just isn’t true. In fact, before the Civil War, farm kids never had summer off. They went to school during the hottest and coldest months of the year and stayed home to work on the farm during the spring and fall in order to help out with planting and harvesting. City kids, however, went to school year-round.
Over time, though, as cities became more crowded and built up, they became hotter. Bear in mind that the comfort of indoor air conditioning was decades off, so families started to head to the cooler countryside to beat the heat. Because school attendance was not mandatory yet, the classrooms were nearly empty each summer. As a result, by the turn of the century, urban school districts decided to cut about 60 schooldays from the calendar, giving students time off during the most sweltering time of the year, and rural schools soon followed suit.
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