Imagine a high school football coach suggesting, after the team goes 0 and 8, that the kids not bother to play the final three games of the season because, since a championship berth is out of reach, there is questionable value in finishing the season.

Why ask the kids to work, to practice, to sweat; why spend the money lighting the field or take chances on injuries?

Last week, Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford questioned the “instructional value” of making up, at the end of May, the three school days canceled in January and February because of snow and ice. The Legislature passed a bill that would waive the 180-school day requirement for districts who lost days due to severe weather.

Students will have taken their state-mandated tests earlier in the month, she said. In her opinion, it would be better to add time to the school day before the tests when they need to prepare.

That would raise a host of other complications, for families as well as teachers, bus drivers and staff.

It’s hard to believe that in a state with Mississippi’s dismal educational standing, the Legislature would be willing to allow districts to shave days off the school year.

It’s also astonishing that the head of any school district believes, let alone admits, that every single day of the school calendar does not hold the potential for profound instructional value, even the half-days, even the final day.

Two years ago, similar comments came from our superintendent’s chair. Dr. James Price commented that “some elementary principals were talking about what to do (in classes) after the students finished their MCT2 tests (because) the kids and teachers just shut down afterwards, they are so intense.”

Frankly, the students and the teachers deserve better than to be allowed to shut down.

With just a little creativity and leadership, the period after testing holds innumerable possibilities for learning.

The potential to create school periods with enormous instructional value — the delight of learning something for its own sake — is apparent even to non-education professionals.

Turn in the textbooks. Play review games. Make lists. Write poetry. Read books. Read plays. Stage plays. Ask questions. Experiment. Not to get a grade or pass a test, but because it’s fun to work the mind.

Look outside. Vicksburg and the state are full of things to learn more about. The river. The park. The blues. The short story. The Delta. The coast.

As the poet W.B. Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”