Posted by Elizabeth on November 19, 2006 at 18:52:25 from 71.236.185.241 user Elizabeth.
In Reply to: Re: Holiday Tasks, more on posted by Adam Quinan on November 19, 2006 at 11:33:02:
Remember that there was no mumps vaccine & it is highly contagious--thus the need for quarantine. Items coming from Nancy were held close to the fire in order to kill the virus. As far as the schools could know, any of the others could have come down with the disease any time during the enforced month off (and upped the risk of all the rest as well). In those days, no school would have wanted books & papers which may have been contaminated to return to school untreated. And there were no computers, so no online assignments to e-mail to your teachers as soon as you've finished them!
However, I also agree with the idea that AR might not have really known much about school details. So perhaps, it is just an oversight. It did leave them plenty of time to strew the Fram with rabbit and sheep skins & to eat all the food! And they were getting a nice amount of Phys. Ed. by skating all over the place.