Should there be school year-round...

In many countries, summer vacation is only about 6 weeks...here they are talking about making school year-round...

What do you all think?

School should be year-round to facilitate learning.

[DCJenn]

I like the idea of year round school, but I know in some countries they have extended breaks. Like three months or so off, but only one month at a time, one in the winter, one in the spring and one in the summer. I would have preferred that as a kid because by the end of the summer I was bored out of my mind. I think kids need a break from school but the entire summer was way too long for me. Plus with my tenuous grip on math, I would always have to spend all of September trying to remember what I was doing in June!

Jenn

Germany is like that, Jenn....they don't have such extended summer vacations, but they have much more time off throughout the year...I also think that for families, 3 months can be a bit much.....The kids get bored by the beginning of August and mom can be a tad bit bored or stressed herself

But primarily, I agree with the idea that a lot can be forgotten during summer. I'm fortunate to be at home so that I can review with the kids, but not every mom is able to do that...it puts some children at a disadvantage, I think....

Kris
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."

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I vote for what Jenn said - learning throughout the year with periodic breaks and holidays. I find it so wasteful that schools have such long breaks that their students forget and must spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the public school year "relearning" the forgotten material. Additionally, learning should be viewed as a constant process - with intensive learning broken up by periodic holidays.

Jennifer