Do you think children should attend school year round instead of getting the traditional summer break?

No. I think there should be about a six week summer break, and several one-week breaks throughout the year. The way it is now, the first couple weeks of the school year are spend reviewing (in elementary schools). This is a waste.

you could just do what the Chinese do and assign summer homework. It is far more than just read this one book and do a report on it!

No, I think it is barbaric. I really do…and even more barbaric for the teachers (especially for the teachers in schools that have low budgets and don’t get paid enough as it is.)

The mind and the body need to replenish themselves in order to function at full capacity…and kids need time to just play, go out and be in nature, hang out with friends outside of class and work off all the steam that was pent up all year.

No way. It’ bad enough we train them to be obedient little workers for ¾ of the year as it is.

No. It’s not like if we just kept them in school, the kids who were going to vandalize wouldn’t do it. As much as children need structure, they also need a lack of structure and intense boredom in order to develop self-entertaining skills. Some children go vandalize (which isn’t good, but in the scheme of what they could be doing, pretty minor). Others are finally so bored to tears that they read a freaking book when they normally don’t care for reading. Or they build a fortress out of pillows and blankets and figure out a viable structure to make sure it doesn’t collapse. Or they learn to write a small computer script fixing the bug in the computer game that’s been bugging them, thus planting a seed for them to become a computer programmer later in life. I know kids who have all of their time structured, one of them going off to college next year, and not a one of them is good with figuring out how to entertain themselves. The emotion regulation of dealing with boredom is a major life skill, and those who don’t learn it are at a major disadvantage.

Yes.It is so much quieter that way.:)

No. I think kids are in school too much already.

Yes, the school should also be on an island far from suburbia, they can come home at Christmas for two days……. & leave at twenty five.

Yes I do. Teachers rail against summer breaks, they end up having to spend the first few months doing review from everything last year, and kids lose concentration and study habits over the break.

We don’t need an agrarian summer break, last time I checked very few of our kids are going home to help with the fields anymore.

Implement 3 semesters, have a 2 week break between each one, increase teacher pay…. then watch as grades go up.

Something to consider here is that many schools don’t have the air conditioning necessary if you have kids inside the classrooms during summer.
I like the ideas presented by @perspicacious and @tedd, but maybe @Schroedes13 has the right approach.
I remember going to school in (mild weather) Oakland, and just baking in the classes during September.

No. Here is why,

All school year, I looked forward to summer vacation. It was probably what kept me going in school…...something to look forward to. I would count the days. It was really rough, especially in the spring, to stay in school. Knowing that summer vacation was just around the corner, kept me digging in my school books.

People have to have something to look forward to, in their lives. This was it for me, in school.

I would personally prefer to go to school year-round, assuming there was an equivalent amount of time off interspersed throughout the year. I hate being overly busy, and I hate having huge amounts of time with nothing to do – I think having more often, shorter vacations would keep stress levels at a more moderate level all the time, rather than being super busy all year and then super bored all summer.

And I think I’d prefer to look forward to a two week long vacation two weeks away, rather than a two month long vacation two months away.

I did. I went to summer school voluntarily from age 10 on, but none of the courses went towards any graduating credits, so I was still in school until age 17.

USians are only against it because they’re not used to it. Have 5-year olds now start going to school year round and they’ll get used to it.

Two weeks spring break, two weeks August break, two weeks winter break. Boom. Done. You’re welcome.

Yes. As a homeschooling family, we already do a couple of weeks as breaks here and there. Three months is way too much time off from studying.

I think a couple of weeks off three to four times per year plus weekends is all anyone needs as a break.

As for the air-conditioning @filmfann, I live in Wisconsin and almost every school here has airconditioning. I agree that to have summer classes, kids would need comfort. If that isn’t available in warmer climates, then districts need to look into other options to keep the kids in school and comfortable.

I think children shouldn’t attend school at all and learn year round, instead.

@incendiary_dan precisely what I should have said, as that’s what we do ;)

@incendiary_dan – Couldn’t agree more. Can’t pull that off with my 3 kids, unfortunately, although we considered it for awhile. I know unschooled kids and they are the smartest, well-rounded kids I have ever met.

I don’t think it’s a good idea simply for safety reasons. Where I went to school, it was often too hot in the summer for people to be inside a building that was not air-conditioned.

I also think that kids need more than a two week break every three months. It would be different if school was more useful, but cramming 20 or 30 children in a room with only one adult for 8 hours a day has always seemed like a bad idea to me. maybe instead of taking away summer vacation, during that time, schools could host more hands on programs such as visiting museums, aquariums and other educational places. Perhaps the school boards could sponsor educational events throughout the city that would be required (to an extent) for students. Having schools running all year-round is bad idea, I think, but having educational programs all year-round might be a good idea.

@SpatzieLover….Homeschooling is a different thing. Homeschooling is not being spoon-fed for most of the year until your mind is numb from whatever “the state” (as in the UK) wants you to believe. The question was not “Is it okay to homeschool children all year?” The question is “Do you think children should go to school all year?” How many children are you homeschooling? A handful, correct? A handful (usually) of well-behaved children who really do learn better. (I should know——I did both….I taught huge classes and then homeschooled..and never the twain shall meet.) Putting children in a state school all year…is not the same. Classes are usually huge, the teachers are stretched to the limit. The bright students are made to lag behind, the slow students don’t get the attention they need and then lag behind, too. Discipline problems are rampant.

@aprilsimnel….The idea that “USians can get used to it”...is true. But why should they? It’s a system that flogs the creativity out of children, forces them into simply spewing out whatever the curriculum demands and stunts the whole process of self-individuation. I see the children walk by day after day all year round and frankly, they are exhausted. It’s just a way to get the state to babysit your children. And if that’s okay, and you want the state to be your nanny all year, teach them the values of “everyone must be the same” as the world seems to be going anyway…then it works. I just like children to have the freedom to be themselves and that is not necessarily taught at state schools…though I know there are fantastic out-of-the-box teachers in the system. But even they are often threatened with the loss of their jobs.

If citizens of any country aren’t pleased with their form of public schooling, they should implement changes.

I read the question as: Do you think kids should be in year round school? My answer to that is a resounding Yes.

@SpatzieLover: I think children should be educated all year round. I do not think they should attend school all year round. I don’t want to sound nitpicky, but I think there is a huge difference between school and education. I think it would be more feasible for kids to stay in school all year round if the education system was less rigid and maybe if the school day was actually shorter. Instead of having a eight hour day every week day for nine months of every years, maybe we could have a five hour school day every weekday for the whole year. Curricula could be more tailored to groups of students rather than having one basic one that applies to the majority of schools in a country.

In fact, I think magnet schools and schools designed for specific interests and talents in children should much more widely available. If these types of schools replaced “ordinary” schools, then I would absolutely be in favor of making school all year round provided the buildings were properly equipped to keep the environment safe in all respects, temperature and basic environment included.

From a philosophical standpoint, I consider education to be very hard to achieve through schooling, though not impossible. It’s like Margaret Mead said “My grandmother wanted me to be educated, so she kept me out of school.”

Obviously I also think there is a difference between “school” and education. In our locale people seem to think the more you spend on a building, the better your education system is.

All of this is null if no one stands up to change or alter the current system.

@SpatzieLover Or get rid of it and replace it with something better.

I’ve said for at least 8 years that public schools should be defunded and the money spent on public libraries, instead. Even now, I think more learning goes on at the libraries, and a lot of intergenerational communication.

@incendiary_dan I agree with doing away with the system as it stands.

Stories like this one sicken my husband & I. All of that money, time & energy wasted on a building. Buildings do not educate. What will it take to enlighten people of this fact?!

@SpatzieLover I think what really did it for me was my own high school. The administration decided to spend thousands on new football stuff, and the classes didn’t have paper. facepalm

@incendiary_dan That happens all of the time here. Huge fund-raisers for sporting supplies, bleachers, tracks and fields while kids are sharing text books. Recently both of our high schools had reno work done. The renovations came in at $108 million. Both mainly had cosmetic work done. There are still not enough computers, books or supplies in either.

No. People need breaks [especially the kids].
Grown ups have vacations, why shouldn’t kids enjoy their? ^^

@SpatzieLover….I wanted to clarify this….I am an advocate for homeschooling and unschooling both so I applaud what you are doing.

@DarlingRhadamanthus Thank you. I understand we are for the same thing in the schools. It appears I’m having trouble articulating myself today.

Here in my locale, it seems unless people are willing to stand up and say “more teachers, less spending on stuff” nothing is going to change for the better.

We had a large upset in our State gov’t regarding teachers this year. I can only imagine how badly it will impact the school systems this autumn. Schools are already reporting that the student to teacher ratio will need to increase by a minimum of 10%. It’s actually looking like it will be more in the 15–20% range as the budgets are coming out. How pathetic!

Teachers will fall like flies with burnout.

No, but the summer vacation can be much much shorter, in my opinion like 2–3 weeks.

No!

@KatawaGrey – See, I went to schools like what you describe, plus I was in special snowflake classes, which is where my bias for year-round schooling might be coming from. During my time at school, the programs I was placed in were properly funded. I don’t think I was ever in a class with more than 18–20 kids, and we were all motivated to learn.

Yes, many of our schools went to a year round schedule for a few years, but it apparently did not work out, since they have now returned to the traditional school year.

I had my grandsons in an outreach school, where they only went in twice a week to receive their assignments and take their tests. It operated all year long, with short breaks every three months.

Just a reminder to those wanting the 2–3 week breaks: Children don’t get summer jobs for 2–3 week breaks, which is often valuable real life experience. You also never get to send them to their grandmother’s farm for the summer, or have their great-aunt take them on a summer tour of Europe. There are lots of things that just won’t fit into 2–3 weeks, and if that’s all the time you have, you don’t get those options.

@Aethelflaed Those are good points, not that any of us can afford the tour in Europe. Perhaps a month then.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Which is true, I just don’t like the idea of the government preventing you (and me) from doing it should you inherit 10 million dollars or something. And thank you.

I fully agree with @incendiary_dan.
He stated it perfectly:
I think children shouldn’t attend school at all and learn year round, instead.
From a philosophical standpoint, I consider education to be very hard to achieve through schooling, though not impossible. It’s like Margaret Mead said “My grandmother wanted me to be educated, so she kept me out of school.” GA’s

For years I’ve thought the educational system was practically useless. I still think that. It needs to be changed or replaced.

I don’t believe the education system is completely useless. I actually find a large part of the problem with education today is the views that parents have towards their child’s education. I was always brought up in a home where knowledge and education were two very important things. I feel that in today’s society, education is becoming a second rate process partially because of the lack of emphasis that many families are putting on it. As much as I dislike the Chinese education system and their over emphasis on it, Chinese students know that education is their only way to a successful career and possibly to a “better life”. Maybe we do need to learn a thing or two from our Oriental acquaintances across the pond.

Assuming a contemporary school system paradigm that has traditionally had a long summer vacation – although I like that big library idea too – I think it depends a lot on what the kids have available during that ‘vacation’. it could be heaven or heck depending on whether you’re cooped up with nothin’ to do or have lots to do.

Of course not. Gosh.

Like someone said before, people need something to look forward to, a glimmer of hope that there is something better out there, to keep them going, kids are no different than adults in this respect imo.

I think that the 180 day school year is enough but it makes no sense to take of for three continuous months. I think there should be 60 day trimesters with two weeks between then an abbreviated summer break during the hotest months. Just the opposite below the equator.