Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Year-Round School


Year-Round schooling has been discussed all around the United States . There are, as with any topic, advocates and opponents. Advocates of year-round school say that it decreases the amount of absences from both teacher and student and argue that it prevents the teachers and students from "burning out" over the long summer vacation. Opponents argue that all the breaks will make students learning suffer.

The scheduling for year-round school depends on the location of the school district. They mostly consist of shorter summer breaks, but longer winter and spring breaks, along with other breaks here and there. Some schools have schedules such as attending school for four months straight (except weekends of course) then two months off or two months on and two months off. Others offer straight schooling for two months then one month off. Sometimes this shortens the amount of days in school from 180 days to roughly 163, which can be made up by longer class periods. Most common types of schedules are seven to twelve weeks of school with a one to three week break.

This type of schooling can also offer the ability to have a larger capacity of students. While one set of students is on vacation the other set would be in school and vice versa. The ability to have more students would cut down on the amount of new schools needing to be built.

As a student I feel there are some positives and some negatives to year-round schooling. I think it would benefit some students to not have the three long months of summer break and forgotten everything they learned the year before. However, not having the same school and vacation schedule as your friends is a huge drawback, in my opinion. Students like summer vacation because it is a time to be with their friends and have fun. I would definitely find it interesting and beneficial to try the year-round schooling. Having less schooling at one time and breaks more often is a definite positive for me. I think I would have to experience the year-round schooling for myself before making an absolute decision, but it's absolutely an opportunity worth pursuing.
*Sprinkleddoughnuts

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know about anyone else, but near the end of school my brain is nearly fried. I think that summer vacation is necessary in order for students to digest all the information that they have been given during the school year. Summer vacation allows the mind to rest so that the student can come back refreshed in fall. Also, just because its summer it doesn't mean that students cannot study. During the summer I read books and look over material from the previous year. Year round school would also cause problems for those students who only have seasonal jobs, like working at pools. Some students don't like year-round work because it conflicts with their school activities and class work.

Anonymous said...

Remember the reviews that have to be done after summer break and even after Christmas break? I think that with year-round schooling there would be a lot of time wasted in reviewing, rather than learning new material.

Anonymous said...

Why change a system of education that has worked for so many years?
A majority of the community has accepted the current schedule, rearraning it would create confusion.

Anonymous said...

Summer break is necessary for students to take in all that they learned from the previous school year. It also allows them to prepare for the upcoming year.

Lola said...

School would not be the same without a long summer vacation. Once the days start to warm up no kid wants to be in school. Teachers also don't want to be in school when it is nice out. Summer give students and teachers a long break to relax and not worry about what is coming up. With year round school teachers would never fully have a break they would have to be planning for the next month. I think the way the system is now is wonderful with brief breaks throughout the year and a long summer vacation.

Anonymous said...

Year-round schooling? Schools are turning into boot camps. If there isn't a summer break then when would people take a vacation or spend time with friends and have parties? Teachers would certainly get burned out as well. I think that switching to a year-round schedule would cause more problems for everyone rather than solving any.

Anonymous said...

I always thought there would be some good reasons for the year-round schooling system. I think that having intermittent 2-week breaks all year would actually do more to prevent burnout...but mary poppins has a good point about the reviews.

Anonymous said...

If there was year-round school, there would more breaks. With this, there would have to be more time spent on review. Also, there would a lot of students who would be furious with this, which would make more kids dislike school.

Anonymous said...

I also agree with what Mary Poppins said. Although it would be nice to have longer breaks throughout the school year, I personally would struggle when it was time to return to school and continue where we had left off. I highly doubt that more then half of the student body would study to remember what they had learned while on a break. I think the breaks we currently have are just right. They are long enough to relax, but not too long to forget everything.

yoda said...

"Sometimes this shortens the amount of days in school from 180 days to roughly 163, which can be made up by longer class periods."

I dont know about all of you, but the school day is long enough already, especially when i add in extracurricular activities before and after school. If we have to have longer school days, even if it is a shorter amount of days, i think i would shoot myself(joking) And then if you do add in the sports or show choir or band or any of the hundreds of clubs at our school there's no way anyone would have time to do homework and those activities in the same night/day and get enough sleep to get up and do it all over again the next day. I barely have enough energy sometimes to get through the day now. No way would i want to have a year-round school.

Anonymous said...

Wow, summer already doesn't seem quite long enough... and then having even smaller breaks scattered randomly? There would be no time for that huge family vacation you have been planning and like mary poppins said, everytime we came back from a break, it would be almost a week of review. Professor is right as well, I have a seasonal job where I earn most of my money in summer, if I was in school there would be no time for that. That would effect almost all businesses that revolved around the summer season such as amusement parks, water parks, etc. Those cheap labored teens wouldn't be available to work for them, making them spend more of their revenue paying their full time employees that they would have to hire.

Anonymous said...

I think that the year long school would be worth a try because i see the positives. But i love my summer break. Its necessary for a long break away from school to think about other things.

Anonymous said...

I would be willing to give up my 3 month long summer break to make way for many more (although shorter) breaks. Towards the end of the summer, most students are bored and ready to go back to school anyways. I would definitely be ready to give this a try!

Anonymous said...

well... I view year-round school as a good and bad thing. One thing good about it is that ith simulates what it is like when we are adulyts with full-time jobs. As much as we will want to go outside, we won't be able to. Unless you are a teacher or want to be fired. The bad thing about year-round school is the no summer break. Personally summer break is my time to reboot, catch up on all that sleep i missed during the school year, and to work. During the school year there is no possible way for me to work and deal with schoolwork and still be able to enjoy the five hours of sleep i normally get. So unless you can suggest another way to get all that sleep back and to earn money when it is not possible to have a job.. then I thinik I'll stick with the system we have.