by Sravani Meka | ILEX Publications Intern | Woodbridge Academy Class of 2015
“Five! Four! Three! Two! One! SCHOOL’S OUT!” Every student knows the feeling of counting down the clock on the last day of school. Time slows down as you begin the countdown. The hallways become crowded but despite getting your personal space invaded, you don’t mind at all as you make your way through all the chaos to your locker, with yearbook in hand, one last time to get your things and bid your friends adieu. Summers finally here and the possibilities seem endless. The beach beckons you with her soothing cold water and the comfort of relaxing under the hot sun, your schedule is practically free, and the last thing on your mind is school. Students see summer as the friend that bails them out of school, A.K.A: JAIL. Many students don’t want to hear it but the two to three months of freedom that we get are too long and damaging.
During the summer, students experience the learning gap, a summer learning loss as a result of the traditional summer break from school. Two main causes for this problem are idle students; students who are at home by themselves without supervision. Despite what their parents would like to think, their child, is not going to spend summer days absorbed in science experiments, history books and reading “War and Peace.” With a plethora of media at their fingertips — literally– students of the 21st century have plenty of non-educational ways in which to entertain themselves. Parents would be lucky if their child even picked up a book!
According to an article on the National Association for Year Round Education website, http://www.nayre.org/, the average student loses roughly 2.6 months worth of knowledge during the typical three-month summer vacation. This leads to teachers having to spend an six weeks reviewing the material that has been lost to prepare students for the new curriculum. If teachers decide to skip the review, the learning loss will accumulate and the nation’s students will fall even further behind other industrialized countries when it comes to math and science knowledge.
Even though summer vacation is one of the most significant causes of why our country continues to fall behind in education, it is hardly discussed and looked at. As a student, it breaks my heart to say this as much as I love the summer holidays, I think the school year should be extended and summer shortened or longer breaks in between with year round schooling to prevent the summer learning gap and improve our country’s education system. What do you think?
http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/why-summer-learning/
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Summer_Learning_Loss/
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