Time to Crack some Holiday Eggs?

• Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midiman/125332356/

Just a thought or two on the Easter holidays.....why are they at Easter?
The advantages to year on year fixed term times between Christmas and Summer surely should prompt a rethink.  Isn't it is time to rid ourselves of a pre-secular, pre-industrial not to mention pre-tech societal footprint on our increasingly demanding school year?
Most children know little of agricultural life other than it involves cute baby lambs - but their school year is still defined by it.  Likewise they know more about the life and times of the Easter Bunny than the birth and death of Jesus. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it, Easter is now a commercially driven, fortnight long chocolate fest.
Teachers and students would benefit from a planning calendar with defined lengths to each term - and for the long stretch from Christmas to summer to be sliced in two depending on the appearance of the first full moon after the March equinox has no educational foundation whatsoever.  Following this pattern - laid down in 325 A.D. -   makes a mockery of the science of learning.
For older students - and their teachers -  taking state examinations in early summer the psychological effects of a short summer term after a late Easter are enormous and potentially quite detrimental.
Younger students would also benefit from a more predictable rhythm to the school year.
Taking the holidays out of Easter doesn't mean taking the Christianity out of the school programme  - the Easter story will retain its importance for those who choose so.
It is a change long overdue - and it's hard to make an omelette without cracking some eggs !