At this point, it’s becoming clear. Too much of the community opposes a plan to alter the school calendar to allow classes to begin in mid-August and offer more breaks during the cold months.

There indeed are many residents in the Albert Lea school district who support the idea — but that’s the problem: It’s merely an idea. There isn’t enough strong evidence of educational gains from starting school earlier and having more breaks for the sake of remedial education. The people who oppose the calendar idea know this.

When the time comes, we urge the Albert Lea school board to reject a plan for altering its calendar. Of course, it makes sense to go forward with the next hearing, slated for 5 p.m. Oct. 30 at Albert Lea High School, but we felt the district residents and school board deserved to know where the Tribune Editorial Board stands on the matter sooner than later.

We pondered all sides of the issue. It’s not a black-and-white matter. In the end, what pushed us off the fence was this: There are too many lessons on life learned during summer vacation that cannot be taught in school and cannot be tested on an exam.

Think about summer jobs, for starters. Holding down a job is not taught at school. Building a good rapport with a supervisor is vital to success in life, regardless of good grades. Working on a farm, such as detasseling corn or baling hay, provides a solid base for a work ethic later in life. Balancing a bank account is taught in schools, but doing it in real life is nevertheless good for teenagers. Changing the calendar will limit summer job opportunities.

Think about the utmost importance social scientists place on play when it comes to childhood development. There is not much better weather for letting our children be outside with neighbor friends than the dog days of August. Sure, kids get to play together at school, to a limited degree, but there is an unspecified value to playing with frogs in the mud, jumping off docks into the lake, riding around on bikes, playing baseball, getting messy in a sandbox, taking family trips out of town and the list goes on. They don’t get as many of those experiences in cold months. We need Albert Lea graduates to be well-rounded, creative-minded adults, not institutionalized test takers.

Our safe and active community offers that well-rounded upbringing more so than any suburban or big-city district. That point strikes at the very essence of why many parents choose — and chose — to raise their children here.

Remedial education is important. We are glad the district offers it after school and during breaks. We have an outstanding district with dedicated teachers and, as a point of pride, two elementary schools ranked among the best in Minnesota, which merely reflects on the quality of the district as a whole. What’s more, this school district can be trusted to be focused on the children. However, we aren’t sold that having a shorter summer break and longer breaks at other times offsets summer learning loss and allows children who have fallen behind to catch up. From what we have read, it more likely only shifts learning losses to other times and results in a more disruptive calendar for all the other students and instructors.

The school board members are to be commended for the way they went into this proposal. They didn’t just bring it up at one meeting and pass it at the next, like so many government panels do. They said they wanted to float the calendar plan with the community, and if they perceive too many residents dislike it, then they would not go forward with it. It wasn’t about majorities. It wasn’t about stroking the ego of this mover or that shaker. It was to be weighed based on general community support for the idea. That was extremely wise. It’s the way major decisions should be made.

We frankly don’t believe there is enough support to pass that threshold, especially when viewing undecided people in that survey as part of the group not in favor, because, logically, undecided still means not in favor. Further, the district would be hounded year in and year out — especially at test results time — until the board reverted to the old schedule.

Backing down on the calendar proposal doesn’t show weakness. It doesn’t show lack of vision or some kind of divided board. Not at all. It would show the school board hears the concerns of constituents who elected them into office. It would show the board has the backbone to change direction and the wisdom to hear all the evidence and opinions when making decisions that affect the community. It would show leadership by building consensus — which is often the best kind of leadership in the long term.

The calendar proposal has been good for community dialogue. It has educated many parents to the struggles of remedial education in a district with poverty problems. (Go to the map at povertyusa.org and click on the county view and you’ll see in color-coded glory that poverty rates are much worse in many places, especially in the American South and West but even in nearby Mower, Faribault and Blue Earth counties. Freeborn County has poverty, to be sure, but we are blessed compared to many locales.)

We hope the community can congratulate itself on doing what the school board asked and provide the feedback it sought. We hope the district residents show up in good numbers for the Oct. 30 meeting. And then we hope the board decides to start classes after Labor Day for the foreseeable future.