Should General Education School Continue Year Around? From the early 1900’s through today, America society as a whole has embraced the nine month general education school year. As we progress into the future, we need to look for more efficient ways to educate the general populous. When we initially went to a nine month school year, there were a multitude of reasons. As we look at the reasons why we began to utilize a nine month school schedule, we need to consider both the advantages and disadvantages of transitioning to a year round school model. While we continue to grow and expand as a nation, we need to reevaluate our current school model. From this, we will look at why schools should transition to year round schools, and abandon the …show more content…
The third is that wealthier families in the urban schools would vacation in the summer. The fourth reason is that it would become extremely hot in the summer, classrooms would become unbearably hot due to high temperatures. The fifth reason, it provided time for schoolmasters to train and prep for the next year. The final reason was, Doctors thought that kids would need a break from school or it could be detrimental to them. While each of these six reasons were valid in the 1900’s, they no longer holds the sway that they once did. While reason one was to standardize the schools, this is still a very valid reason a standardize school schedule should be maintained and adjusted to a year around school. Looking back at the second and fifth reasons we transitioned, teachers are now required to attend college, which limits the need for additional educational needs that the old schoolmasters once needed. This also means that teenage girls no longer teach the summer classes, eliminating the academically weaker summer classes that they presented. The third reason, was basically based on privilege of the wealthy, and we should not placate to one class of people, it should be fair across all classes of people. Reason four was very valid until the introduction of Heating Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC). We
Year round education (YRE) is implemented in 436 U.S. school districts with very few complaints. In fact, school districts that have been participating in YRE and extended school days (ESD) are raving about the benefits in pupil's achievement level, their new found enthusiasm in learning, as well as the many programs that exist in the extended day promoting the decline in latch key children.
Year-round schools have gained popularity among the United States, being a very communicated topic within middle class communities. These schools are generally argued about by whether they are beneficial or not. While there are many advantages to year-round schools, there are some disadvantages as well. A few of these disadvantages include the expenses of the schools, the schedules the schools provide, the involvement within the schools, and the actual effectiveness of these schools.
When a person first mentions the idea of year-round schooling, their comment is usually met with a look of dread. The image of year-round schooling is that students must go to school every day throughout the entire year with no breaks. This is an untrue image. Students are given frequent breaks throughout the school year to make up for the shorter summer break. It was first used in the 1800s, which goes against many people’s thoughts that it is a new alternative schooling proposal (Research). At that time year-round schooling was used in industrial cities to teach English to children of immigrants. By the early 1900s, year-round schooling was used as a method to reduce overcrowding, underfunding,
I think it's funny that the subject of year-round school is still a topic of debate. The reason is I just want to have good teachers and get a good education. I really don't care when and how the schedule is set up because I know my mom and dad will support me and get me to where and when I need to be. But, if I had a choice I would choose to have a schedule similar to what Nick Castellino writes about in his letter. I feel that of the two letters Nick wrote the one I agreed with more. Nick's letter, seemed to me, to be mainly about doing away with year-round school.
The first reason why kids should have a summer break is that it makes school less complicated. According to Jennifer Brozak, a disadvantage of having a year round school is that the school budget has to increase. They will need to have more fundraisers in order to keep the school going. If they neglect to get the amount of money they need they sometimes cancel and let the students have a summer break. In addition, teachers are having difficulty with planning lessons for students and grading papers in a short amount of time they have (Brozak). In addition, Brozak says, because of the short amount of time teachers have to grade papers they are prone to burnout. This is one of the reasons that schools should have a summer break because both teachers and students’ mental pressure because of work (Brozak). As a student, I can say that breaks will be necessary to recharge and prepare myself
Industries such as business and medicine depend on extreme methods and forward thinking ideas. To be a successful enterprise, one must be willing to take risks and try new things. Within the last century, education has attempted to take a leap of faith by completely flipping the traditional school schedule and idea of summer vacation upside down. Just as with any idea, there are advantages and disadvantages as well as supporters and opponents. Each district must look at their own individual needs and evaluate the trials from schools that have gone before them to decide if year-round schooling would benefit their school.
“The U.S. research challenges one of the main arguments for abandoning conventional schedules: year- round schooling improves achievement because it prevents students from falling behind during the summer and because it does not waste precious time reviewing past years’ lessons”
In his article “Go Year-Round: A Push for True Summer School”, Milton Chen, the executive director of Edutopia, urges readers to use the year-round schooling system. He explains in brief words what the summer vacation was for. “…when farm families needed young people home during the summer months to replace the three R's with the two P's -- plantin' and pickin' " (Chen). He carries on discussing that the problem with the school days is not only the amount, but the schedule of the school day. The curriculum is too tight; neither the students nor the teachers have the time to step away from the books and text and learn from the outside. The students do not have the chance to go into the outside world and observe what is going on in the society that they live in. Additionally, the teachers do not have the chance to decide how their time is spent because it is spent on the strict schedule of the classroom.
Many schools across the America have tried implementing year-round education. However, some school districts that tried YRE go back to the 180- day schedule (Sardo-Brown, Deborah, and Michael Rooney 1). When year-round education is proposed most of the time opposition is met. In 1992, parents of a possible pilot school were surveyed on their thoughts. 59% of the parents responded. There was an overwhelming amount of rejection. Just 10% of those surveyed favored YRE where 83% were against (Sardo-Brown, Deborah, and Michael Rooney 1).
Year-round schooling is a good idea because it cuts down on the set backs of long breaks. The summer break that everyone knows and loves used to have a different purpose then just swimming in the sun. In the 19th century the children going to school also worked on family farm, so they used this summer “vacation” to help get ready for the winter months. (McFadden and McMahon) Now that there is less farming families schools do not have to worry about that. By the end of the year, YRS
The third reason is many year-round schools have an intersession with creative classes. According to “Year-Round Schooling Offers Benefits over a Traditional Calendar,” the scheduled breaks or vacations for students are called intersessions. Nevertheless “Intersession also is a fertile period for enrichment and creativity” (Year-Round Schooling Offers Benefits). Year-Round schools can have 1-3 week classes for a number of different subjects (Year-Round Schooling Offers Benefits). Also, as a student, intersession is a great way to catch up for a student falling behind in classes. Likewise, if a student is struggling with a certain subject they can take a class during their intersession, then when classes restart they could be caught up. In addition, high school students may use the fall and winter intersessions to scope out future colleges. Students who participate in sports can use the intersession as a way to catch up on their studies if they are not at the level they are expected to be at (Year-Round Schooling Offers Benefits).
Year round school helps with the complications of childcare issues. Parents won 't have to worry about paying for their child to go to a daycare or a summer camp. Child care can be very expenses and the child might even be upset about going to daycare everyday of the summer. Another child care issue is that if families have older children they could get stuck with watching their younger siblings. Then most of teenagers summer are spent watching their younger siblings when they could be enjoy their summer the way they want.
The third reason why we shouldn’t have all year round –schools is because, its tradition to have 180 day’s strait with 3 months of breaks and it gives us more important things to do in the summer. According to Julia Sines, to have a 3-month summer and do more fun activities to do all summer is better than going to school year round. Kids want to go on vacations with their parents. Some athletic kids won’t be able to play travel sports. Scientist say that year round school kids drop out by their senior year (Sines). Most juniors and seniors work in the summer for money for colleges and to save up, but they won’t be able to get money. It’s more American to have 180 straight days with 3-month break. Billee Bussard stated, “It is an idea that has been tried and failed for more than 100 years,” (Sines). So talking to that quote, why would we start now. Kids love going outside and swimming and playing games and making money, but because the kids go to year round schools they only have 3 weeks to do these fun
Year round schools are not acceptable because students don’t have “enough down time”; it raises cost of bills and results in making schedule adjustments. Most people find year round schools as an issue. In an article it states that High school students do not have time to work if they have to attend a year round school. Another one for year round school is that it can also put a burden
It is October 15th. Normally, students would be at school, working for hours on end at math, communication arts, and science. But this year is different. This year your school has now entered into the year-round calendar system. At home, you can enjoy the season of fall with pumpkins, Halloween, and beautiful weather. The idea of year round school has most commonly been pushed aside because of the misconception that it is too much school, or an on-going cycle of learning. However, those who declare this, do not understand the year-round school concept. Year-round school provides the same number of days as the traditional calendar. The difference, which will change our society and the achievement rate of our students in the future, is that the days are reordered into intersessions. The mechanisms of year round school include students attending school for a nine week period, then following this is a three week break. This rotation occurs year-round with a slightly longer summer break. Consequently, Though many people agree with keeping tradition with the popular school calendar, new evidence and testimony proves that year-round school provides the better avenue because the world is evolving, it benefits low income students, and intersessions are more effective than summer break.