Sharing an article on #year-round #schools

I always find this an interesting topic:

 “Year-Round Schooling: Why It's Time to Change”

“When public schools first started popping up in the U.S., they were considered secondary to other hands-on pursuits. Learning to read, write and perform basic arithmetic in classrooms was not equal to or greater than the actual work of building the nation and keeping up family farms.”

“Even when a basic public school education became a relative priority, the school calendar revolved around agriculture - a necessity of the American way of life. Three months off in the summer months was not mandated because students needed "down time" or free creative play or time to decompress from the pressures of their studies. Those months off were full of even more work, and little free time, and plenty of hard work for the sake of the family and the nation.”

“Though family farms as a whole have become an antiquated piece of American history, the idea of summers off from school is still alive and well. The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research finds that the average American student receives 13 weeks off of school each calendar year - with 10 or 11 of those coming consecutively during June, July and August (approximately) - while barely any other countries have more than seven weeks off in a school calendar. Around 10 percent of U.S. schools have transitioned to a year-round school calendar with shorter breaks inserted throughout the year but the majority of schools in the U.S. still follow a summers-off schedule.”

“But why? There is no perilous economic reason that keeping children in school during the summer would be detrimental, and there is no medical reason that three consecutive months during the center of the calendar year are necessary for the healthy development of children. The reason the school year remains in a summers-off state is simple: it is easier than changing it. That mentality begins with teachers in the classroom and escalates to educational policymakers. Changing the ways things have always been, even if there is some pretty solid evidence that it would improve things, is too cumbersome - so why bother?”

Read the whole thing here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2014/07/year-round_schooling_why_its_time_to_change.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam