This is school vacation week in Maine, so parents are dragged by their kids.

Through plenty of snow. To make driving to basketball tournaments in Bangor, Augusta, Portland Maine a little more challenging. Chasing dreams of gold balls. Good luck to all area teams in Maine!

Swim meets, hockey playoffs and down hill ski competitions also happen the same February vacation. So many small Maine towns are pretty sparsely populated right about now. You drop everything to take your vacations around your kids being off from trolling the hallways of higher education.

Small Maine Town Living, Getting Along. — Simple Child Like Curiosity, Respect For The Fragile In All Relationships.

A case of last guy or gal out shut off the lights.

Or those left home to work, or without kids. To cause the travel to larger population areas that host the tournaments. Don’t forget to hold down the fort. Until the rest of the small community members chasing the gold ball return.

But what about the kids in not so great homes?

With nothing to look forward to when the school schedule says next week is vacation. The structured routine of school, the good steady food stream and one on one attention in a clean, warm environment. Suddenly vacation means all that is interrupted.

Like someone yanked, cut or tripped over the life support cord of the survival essentials cocktail mix.

In a space capsule floundering, spinning, drifting away. From the Mother ship that gets smaller and smaller in the port side window polarized glass.

Ask anyone in alternative education in Maine about school vacations. And the Friday going in, the Monday coming out are hard days.

As the adjustment to crank everyone, ratchet it back into the routine is put into motion for resuming the three “R’s”. For kids that carry the added weight of personal, family issues in their knapsacks. And did not have a good steady flow of quality nutrition and self esteem building exercises. When the cupboards are bare. At the home, not so sweet home from school during vacation break just killing time. Or listening to the fighting, being caught in the cross fire.

Like holidays where the person who recently lost a loved one enjoyed them together. But is now solo. All the family is hurting, bleeding. Reminded painfully someone is recently gone. Never to return.

There is a hurry up and get this ho ho holiday over attitude just like Maine school vacation.

Because it is not all roses for everyone in the Maine community who regrets the MIA hangover gloom. Or space of time where home sweet home is not what it should be. Assumed to be by those where it is family fun not hitting the books.

Maine Is Home Made, Small Town. — Maine. The Crack Of A Bat. Little Leaguer Sliding In Home Plate Sounds.

How do you fix the ills, fall out of broken homes?

If a kid is bouncing off the walls but the parent refuses to have tests, agree to counseling to try to help the student cope. To learn appropriate social behaviors that match his or her age if regressed. Or about abuse, dysfunction fueling them like rocket juice.

To get the issues of the home the kid runs away from out in the open. To begin tinkering, adjusting and taking ownership of why Jane or Jimmy is very unhappy, highly disruptive and pretty hard to teach.

And on the statewide level, should public education money be weighted more to schools in affluent areas that get better test scores? Or poured in greater proportion to small rural areas where it is suppose to be no child left behind? Maybe where the need is greater or watch out.