Vacations are never long enough, in my opinion, and that is especially true of summer vacation. I vaguely remember liking school as a kid, but not the start of it each year.

There was usually a book I was only halfway through, or a project that I lost interest in, that suddenly I had to finish before I could start back to school.

These reasons, compelling to me even now, never seemed adequate for my parents, who insisted I could do all of that stuff in my “free time” after school, practice and chores, etc.

I was usually unconvinced. “What free time?” I wondered.

Well, there was a lot more of it then than there is now, it seems.

I just read a report on a survey from Lifechanger of the Year, a program that recognizes public and private school educators, on how teachers spent their summer vacations.

I’m not a teacher, but I’m related to several, and I know quite a few. If I were speaking for them, I’d have to say “What summer vacation?”

According to the survey (and my own observations) the majority of teachers spend about half of their summer breaks prepping for the coming school year. They work on assignments, read books about teaching, and hit websites, such as the interestingly named Teachers Pay Teachers, and of course, Pinterest, for teaching resources.

The statistic that really caught my eye was that the teachers, surveyed in June, on average planned to read five books over the summer.

How? I wonder. In their free time?

I know that teachers “get the summer off,” because their students do, but I also know that, as with any job, the better prepared you are for a task, the more likely you’ll be successful at it. Teachers may get the summer off, but a lot of them don’t take it.

Teaching is a job few people are cut out for. The hours when school is in session are exhausting, the feedback is at best 50 percent positive, and you will find equally passionate parties on both sides of the argument about teacher pay — too much or too little.

Few jobs are more important than what teachers do, though, so to all the teachers who are missing summer, too, welcome back.