Would you want a longer school year?

Tagged with: feelings, mom, parents, school, summer

Betsy Shaw

posted in Mom Stories

I remember learning, in an education course, that Japan’s average school year was 240 days. That’s 60 days more than America’s average school year of 180 days. That’s a pretty big difference when it comes to learning time.

According to a N.Y. Times report, roughly 170 schools, scattered throughout the country, many of which are charter schools, are trying out longer school years.

The magic number seems to be 200 days, adding a month’s worth of increased class time to the normal school year.

According to the article, education advocates have been gunning for a country-wide shift to longer school years, doing away with leisurely summer vacation as we know it. Some parents, teacher’s unions and other progressive educators aren’t convinced more class time, and more academic stress, is what our children need to excel.

Studies of the benefits of more classroom time are inconclusive one way or the other. Research citing brain drain over the long summer break, especially for lower income students, calls for shorter breaks as an answer to closing the achievement gap. Despite enormous support, and a general consensus that the current school schedule, which was designed around an agricultural-based economy, is outdated, most attempts to change it have failed.

Budget cuts and funding are significant obstacles to lengthening the school year. There also seems to be little agreement regarding how schools should best use the extra time. Some think more time in school translates to more opportunity for school to fail to educate kids. If schools can’t teach our kids what they need to know in 180 days, what good is 10 or 20 more days going to do?

Dr. Matthew Lynch, a columnist for Education News brings up one of the central issues at the heart of the longer school year debate: family.

“The major disadvantage is the assumed detriment to family structure. American families have become accustomed to the traditional long summer vacation. Parents may find it difficult to schedule vacations and family reunions. This concern is not to be dismissed, as it is important to children’s development to spend quality time with their families.”

I’ve got mixed feelings about longer school years. If my kids had to head back to school this coming Monday, summer would feel way too short. But I live in a part of the country where summer is fast and furious, and winters are long, cold and dark. To hand over even a week or two of our magical summer to classroom education would feel like a big sacrifice.

But I realize summer vacation isn’t magical for every child. And I’m sure we could adapt to a longer school year. If we have to.

Could you?

Read more from source:“babycenter-com-baby”