Ah, August. That time of year when you take a long, loving look at your children and ask, “Are you still here?”
We have two elementary schoolers at my house, and as much as we enjoy family time, we’ve had enough by now. Despite our best efforts to keep them focused and busy, their young minds have been idle for too long. It’s all thanks to the 12-week summer break, a remnant of the 19th century, when we didn’t have air conditioning to make classrooms tolerable in the heat.
Wouldn’t year-round school make more sense? Kids would take shorter breaks and retain more of what they learn. In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked whether you’d want public schools to go year-round, and 57 percent voted yes.
Great, but to get this done, we’re going to have to overcome inertia — there’s no big groundswell for this that I know of — and several arguments, including:
- Child care issues. Breaks throughout the year could be tough for working parents who already juggle government holidays, teacher prep days and we-just-feel-like-a-day-off days on the school calendar.
- Vacation issues. The calendar would look different, but the total time off would remain the same. Wouldn’t it be nice to have time to visit warmer destinations during our long, dreary winter?
- Teacher objections. Along with fame and fortune, the long summer vacation seems to be one of the appealing parts of being a teacher — the light at the end of a long tunnel. Can we interest them in a six-week break instead?
There’s a lot to figure out, but those in favor of year-round school have the best argument of all: smarter kids. The annual “summer slide” is draining their brains, particularly in math. Year-round school could make them better-educated and better suited to the workforce.
We just don’t want to look at them when they’re 30 and ask, “Are you still here?”
— Doug Parry, parryracer@gmail.com; @parryracer
From the promise of young minds being molded only to become moldy during summer, to the promise of a high preseason ranking for the University of Washington Husky football team.
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