No, wait, come back. Too many Steven King novels. One of the reasons American schools are struggling is that our school year is one of the shortest on Earth. Summer vacation was originally created so kids could go home and help on the farm, which hasn't been necessary in a century, plus or minus. Which means until we lengthen the school year, keeping kids from missing the class days they do have is one of the most important things we can do.
Every parent knows that kids get sick a lot, and school is where they catch a lot of the bugs.
And it turns out that colds, flu, bronchitis, and a lot of other illnesses are communicated more effectively through hand contact than through the air. So, a new study has found that a daily schedule of mandatory hand-washings cut the number of student sick days by almost 40 percent . That'll help a lot, especially since such illnesses occur most frequently in elementary school, where some kids fall behind for good as a result. There's zero to lose. The worst thing that happens is our next batch of high school grads will at least be able to bathe themselves.