Going on vacations multiple times a year sounds like a paradise, right? Imagine being able to go to a dream vacation spot without it being crowded during the same times every other school in the world has off and have the same idea.
An estimated four percent of schools in the U.S. serving about 3 million students, follow a year-round schedule.
Year-round schooling has many perks, ones that traditional schooling lacks.
Year-round people get breaks every couple of weeks or months that last a few weeks. This opens our schedules and gives us more time to do things we want without it being crowded. The summer break typically lasts for about a month, but it really depends on the school.
This schedule also allows students to retain the information they gained throughout the year instead of having one long summer break, year-round schools break the academic year up with several two or three week vacations.
Let’s be honest, multiple short breaks are better than one long one.
The length of breaks and marking periods vary, Some schools have four 45-day sessions followed by 15 day breaks. Some others have three 60-day academic sessions followed by 20 days of break. Then, some have two 90 day sessions and two 30 day breaks.
It also gives teachers a nice break to recollect their sanity after every 9 weeks or so for about 3 weeks. A landmark 1994 report from the National Education Commission on Time and Learning describes the nation’s schools as “Prisoners of Time” and advocates for more schools to break away from the traditional Labor Day-to-Memorial Day school year.
Maybe it would lower the rates that students decide to skip and inevitability retake half their classes and save them from the embarrassment of being with underclassmen in basic classes. Unless they just did better.
The shorter teaching cycles are, the less stressful for teachers and students. Teachers only have to plan for a few weeks at a time, and students get to take regular breaks and recharge. (It would also save us, the students, from their wrath.)
Schools provide a daily routine of face-to-face teaching, which puts them in a better position to respond to students’ educational, social, emotional and mental health needs. Which is a pretty vital part of the lives of young adults, whether they admit it or not. Unless schools aim to fail, which would go against the literal definition of school, “an institution for educating children.”
It also helps close opportunity gaps for lower-income, special education, and other at-risk students who may not have access to the same resources and learning opportunities as their more affluent peers during traditional summer breaks.
Even though it may end our two-month-long summer breaks, it opens more opportunities for students and makes sure the long summer breaks don’t cause them to lose the information they gained through the year, because God knows that I can’t remember half of what I learned in math.
Some may say that it takes away summer breaks, but that’s not true. You still get about a month off in the summer but also get longer breaks for the winter holidays and spring holidays. Plus, as students and teachers, we’d still get Saturdays and Sundays off.
Reasons we shouldn’t convert? Long winter breaks are such a drag and don’t even get me started on the mental health of educators and students.
