In recent years, the idea of year round schooling has become a popular topic of debate. I believe that there are many benefits of year round schooling. It is argued that students lose a significant amount of knowledge over the summer months. Advocates believe that that year round schooling would improve student performance by eliminating the summer performance gap. http://www.nayre.org
In my personal experience, it seems as though I spend the better part of the first month back from summer break re-acclimating students to classroom rules/procedures as well as re-teaching concepts from the previous year. In my opinion, the time that is spent re-teaching concepts forgotten over the summer months could be better spent on advancing to higher academic levels with a more complex understanding of course material.
I think that the down-time that so many students experience during the summer months can be detrimental both academically and socially. Some would argue that summer break allows for extracurricular programs, sports, and family travel time. For some communities this may be true, but for households that cannot afford to stay home from work or pay for childcare, children are left unattended. This lack of structure and parental supervision has contributed to the rise in crime and drug usage during the summer months.
According to http://www.aspeneducation.com/Article-summer-vacation-teens.html
“A report from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests that more American teens try marijuana for the first time in summer than at any other time of year. This translates into 6,300 new users each day, a 40 percent increase in first-time youth marijuana use during June and July as compared to the rest of the year. A hike in new underage drinkers and cigarette smokers also occurs during the summer months.”
I believe that these statistics could be reduced if students remained in a structured supervised environment, such as school, year round.
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Your blog subject really hit home for me this week in my 8th grade classroom. At this time of year my students are restless, as usual, and we started talking about summer vacation. One boy stated that he wished we just went to school all year because he is just bored after the first week or two. I was floored because it is usually the students that say they would never want to attend school year round. This student is not a super student, just average, but he was at home after surgery for quite a while and had to have teachers come in for home schooling. Maybe this added to his reasoning without him realizing it because he was so bored. I agree that the down time for these students in the summer months can be more detrimental to them academically than helpful. Most of my kids do not get the chance to go on summer vacations or even day trips because the parents have to work every chance they can. They do not have vacation time or high paying jobs that would allow them to take the time off. They need all the paychecks they can get just to make ends meet.
ReplyDeleteI think that year round school would be an excellent idea. I see children doing nothing constructive in the summer months year after year. They are not in summer programs or anything of the sort. I, myself, am not in the position to take off the summer, but I put my daughter in summer camp every year. I feel much better knowing, she is engaged in learning and activities that are constructive. It is frightening when I see young children, mostly boys, outside trying to keep themselves busy.
ReplyDeletepeople who complain about year-round schooling "interfering" with family and parent work schedules are simply stuck in a habit.
ReplyDeletewhile i don't want to advocate drug use, I think we also need to consider whether the "freedom" that summer vacation provides to kids is a good antidote to the "expectations" that schools (and through them, society) place on kids...it's a time for them to "be themselves" and not simply conform.
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