UNITED STATES—It’s a question that has been debated for decades, should the United States implement some sort of law requiring our children to attend school throughout the entire year, eliminating that extensive summer break. As a kid, my answer would have been not a chance, but as an adult it’s an issue that is a bit more important. I don’t think taking the summer break away would be a good idea because let’s face it, everyone deserves time off. However, having children attend school partially during the summer months wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
For starters, it would keep them engaged in their studies. Having an over extensive break has an effect on a child’s mental capacity to maintain knowledge. If you fail to use what you learned you lose it. Take for example mathematics, something like mixed fractions or polynomials are difficult to learn, but once you have the concept you become an ace at it. Failure to practice those tactics after a few months or a few years will be easily forgotten. Trust me I’m speaking from personal experience.
Having children in schools throughout the year will keep them on par with our neighboring continents where children are attending school longer than U.S. students and because of that they are a lot sharper in their studies. If we want to be on a competitive level with our global neighbors we have to be willing to implement such discussions that would benefit everyone involved. I know some teachers will gripe about the issue, but to me classes in the summer are far better than attending classes in the bitter cold months. Think of it this way, school wraps around Christmas and kids have January and February off before resuming in early March. It’s an argument some will be in favor of others not so much.
From my personal experience I enjoyed taking summer courses in college. While the classes were a bit accelerated cramming 16 weeks of material into just 6 ½ weeks is daunting, but the pressure is not so overwhelming; professors are a bit more laid back in the summer compared to the fall and spring semesters. I guess the group we should ask this question to most are children. What are their thoughts on the issue? The youngsters may not have much of a problem with it as they are likely to get accustomed to classes year-round very early.
For those of us who are used to having that summer hiatus it’ll be difficult to shake the fact that there’s no time off in June, July and August. That might be particularly hard for college students who are use to having a longer summer vacation than most students (May-September); heck you never want to go back. On an academic scale, attending school more is likely to make our students smarter, sharper and more aligned with international students already familiar with attending school year round. It’s a discussion we’re not having, but one that we should consider.
By LaDale Anderson
