Year-Round Schooling



Year-Round SchoolingAmerica is falling behind a lot of other countries when it comes to education. With a three month summer break, American kids are setting themselves up for failure. Kindergarten through 12th grade schooling must be year-round. Countries such as China and New Zealand have school year-round and are surpassing America in education. American kids forget almost all they have learned in the school year with such a long break which wastes times for the teachers in the following year because they must re-teach the students.. Many debate the fact that kids will get stressed out from school year-round and with stress comes no motivation to learn. However, with the solution of giving the students mini breaks such as two week vacations, the students will have time to recuperate themselves. Kindergarten through 12th grade schooling must be year-round because other countries are surpassing American education and the students forget what they have learned and must be retaught the following year wasting valuable time for new learning.Countries across the globe such as China and New Zealand have changed their schooling system to year- round schooling. With such a change brought great improvements and success. In the country of China, students are ranked as number one in the world of math, reading and science. In the U.S American 15-year-olds ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math in a study of students in 34 nations and non-national regions (Granderson 1). China’s education is a vast part of their lives. Year-round schooling in China has shown such success in numerous ways. New Zealand is also a country that exercises year-round schooling. As students attend school, stress and feelings of pressure are not a part of their everyday lives unlike students in the United States. The schooling system in both China and New Zealand has worked very well. The students do not feel overwhelmed by piles of work. They do not have to feel crunched for time. With different countries such as China and New Zealand having school year-round shows immense success and shows students becoming well educated. ??Students forget everything they have learned during the three month break off school. when school doors close, many children do not have the access to educational opportunities. Research spanning 100 years shows that students typically score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do on the same tests at the beginning of the summer ([Know The Facts] - National Summer Learning Association 1). This happens because most kids do not participate in any kind of educational programs throughout the summer. There is no way kids can remember everything they learned the previous year given the three months off. Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months (Know The Facts 1). Math equations and science experiments are the furthest thing from children’s minds as they play volleyball in the sand and go swimming in the local pool. Year-round schools will allow children to better retain information through the shorter breaks. The very thought of sending kids to school year-round makes some parents cringe. These particular parents believe sending their kids to school without the three month summer break will be very stressful for their children. Some also believe receiving a two-week break every six weeks of schooling will be distracting to students. Patricia McCracken, who grew up attending a year-round school in Virginia Beach, Virginia, says she found the two-week breaks, which occurred every six weeks at her school, to be disruptive. "It was really hard to get involved in the work because as soon as you geared up, you had to gear back down again (The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schools [YRS] 1)." However, what these parents and McCracken do not realize is that with these two-week breaks every six weeks truly do benefit the students. Mary Brown, a middle-school teacher in Wake County (where three-week breaks occur every nine weeks), says she doesn't see that as a problem at her school. "Our schedule offers the kids a break from school right when they need it," she says. Earlier this year, after their first three-week break, she says, the kids seemed refreshed. "They didn't have the bored, glazed-over look of kids who had been in school for weeks on end with no break in sight (YRS 1)." These two-week breaks instead of a three month break are so much more beneficial for students because it gives the students time to bounce back from the stress while still allowing them to remember the information they have learned from before the break.America is lacking in education because it has a 9 month schedule, compared to an all year schedule. Countries such as China and New Zealand are excelling where America is failing, because of all year schooling. Children forget information during their three month break, causing what is called the “Summer Slump”. Some people argue that breaks every six weeks are distracting and disrupting, but in reality, these breaks are the perfect length to relieve stress without allowing the kids to forget information. America must switch to year-round schooling. It is the best way to advance as a country in regards to education. Year-round school will bring the largest amount of benefits to the children, and this is what is most important in education. Works CitedGranderson, LZ. "We Need Year-round School to Compete Globally." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 May 2011. Web. 13 May 2014."Know The Facts - National Summer Learning Association." Know The Facts - National Summer Learning Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014."The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schools." . Scholastic, n.d. Web. 13 May 2014. ................
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