Up until recently many banks and other large companies had been toying with the idea of delaying bonuses from their traditional payout dates in January, February and March until after the April 6 step-down in the tax rate.

CNN: Goldman eyes tax delay on UK bonuses

He plays the ngoni, the traditional lute from Mali that dates back hundreds of years and is the musical forebear of the American banjo.

NPR: Bassekou Kouyate And Ngoni Ba: Griot Music

But, says Balbir Chatrik of the Unemployment Unit, an independent research body, it would be better if the colleges providing the courses abandoned their fixation with the traditional academic year and offered more flexible starting dates.

ECONOMIST: The New Deal

Mr. HITZ: Maybe it's a traditional kind of method of dealing with people that dates from a bygone era.

NPR: Radioactive Poison as an Assassin's Tool

Tina Bruno, who runs The Coalition for a Traditional School Year, a nonprofit group in San Antonio, Texas, that lobbies against early start dates, said she has fielded scores of calls from parents fighting pre-Labor Day resumption.

WSJ: School in August Gets Low Grades