The bell rings, you can hear the beating feet of kids running down the halls anxious to take flight from the school grounds if only for a couple of months. Left behind is homework papers, teachers, class rooms, and dear I say a little bit of knowledge?
Each summer I play the pros and cons in my head of year long school vs summer vacation. My husband is absolutely against it. He is thinking from the child’s point of view. The two months when the brain is powered down and spelling, grammar, mathematics, and more are all but forgotten. It is a time for our children to be children, to run, laugh, and play and have no worries or cares.
I once believed that this is how it should be, we often push our children to learn, learn, and then learn some more in hopes that they will lead an easier life then the ones we ourselves lead. Sometimes we forget to let her children just be children. To not worry about life or learning and to color, imagine, and play. However after my second son and dealing with his mild learning issue I began to ponder the wisdom of summer vacation. Thinking maybe year long school is a better option. From my experience with my son I saw that he would “just” start to understand something or just start to excel in his learning and then school would let out. This only meant that the following school year he spent the first couple months trying to re-learn what he had finally learned the year before.
At work don’t you just some times need a “mental health” day or week? Some time to slow down, readjust, and push your worries aside? Balance out your life and responsibilities once again? This is why we have vacation time, personal days, and sick time. (How much many of us get here in American is another discussion for another time). What if we pushed, pushed, pushed and then had two months off? Would that be better then spreading it out throughout the year?
I honestly believe, whether you agree or disagree, that year long school for the sake of learning and retaining what you learn is a good idea. I feel giving our children smaller vacation times throughout the year would be more productive then two months at a time. I know they currently have spring break and winter break, and what seems like 2-3 or more days off a month. However in addition if they went over the summer you would take those 2 months and spread them out. They would still be going to school the same amount each year but with more vacation breaks.
That said I’ve read that on the flip side of things it may be a hard hit on our economy or we would go through an adjustment period. I know living in South Florida the summer is one of the busiest times of the year for many of our attractions. I’m sure up north there are certain sports and attractions that can only be done during the summer so businesses survive on their income from this time of year.
I’m not pretending to have the solution. I honestly don’t know the ramifications of year long school in all aspects. I just feel that from a learning stand point it makes sense.
What do you think? Do you agree with year long school? Would you prefer your children have summers off or more vacations throughout the year?
