Year Round Schooling: Good or bad for kids and families?

The issue of year round schooling is in the news again.  In case you don’t know, year round schooling means that children get 5 weeks vacation in the summer rather than 9 weeks and that the extra four weeks are spread among other holiday times.

Is it a good or a bad idea?

Well, here I have to add a disclaimer.  I was brought up in the UK, taught in the UK, and got used to the UK system of so called year round education.  WE had all of August and a few days of July for summer vacation, two weeks at Easter and Christmas and two weeks for every ‘half term’ of mid- term vacation.

As a child I thought this was normal and I looked forward to the breaks either to catch up on my work or on R and R.

As a teacher I thought it was essential.  I never had to work more than six or seven weeks without a break and this kept me energetic and relatively stress free.  I didn’t realize how lucky I was.

Then I came to Canada, taught the same number of days each year, but had nine weeks vacation in the summer.  I was broke, so I used the vacation to find extra work or to get more training.  But I dreaded the time between Christmas and Easter.  There were hardly any breaks. I was exhausted, the kids were stressed out, we were fed up of each others’ company!  It was a long hard grind for us all, teachers and students alike.

Also, I missed the opportunity to get away for a week or so.  All my trips had to be scheduled for the summer break.  In the UK I was able to get away for several refreshing breaks throughout the year.

So, as a teacher, I opt for year round schooling every time.

But what about the kids?

There seems to be some good research that shows that children forget what they have learned over a long summer break.  I know that I would spend all of September reviewing the past year’s work before moving on to new stuff.  So, year round schooling would help them.

Also, kids get bored.  Now I have no problem with kids being bored for some of the time, it leads to creativity, but if it goes on for to long it becomes a negative state of being.  Nine weeks is too long for children to entertain themselves without getting bored.

Yes, some children can go to summer school and to summer camp if parents have enough money and contacts.  But it is hard on parents who have to organize these things each summer.

Okay, in the North of this country I can understand that children need to take advantage of every sunny day.  Maybe that is why there are nine weeks of summer vacation?  When I was teaching in a rural school in England we had a couple of days each year for ‘pea pulling’.      These days were not formally scheduled but were taken when the local farm crop was ready to be harvested.

Perhaps we could have  a few ‘sun days’ informally scheduled?  That way children would be able to take advantage of sunny days whenever they occurred.  I don’t think this would be too hard on school staff, it could be arranged quite quickly.

I don’t see a downside to year round schooling.  I don’t see a downside to more flexible scheduling.

Learning doesn’t happen to a schedule.  Fit the schedule to learning situations rather than the other way around.