Education is among the most important foundations of a child’s life and serves as a strong support for all future endeavors. Education is a unique foundation built and repaired most often by the public school system for twelve to thirteen years. Americans no longer live in an agrarian society in which it is more important to stay home harvesting crops to survive through the winter than to go to school. The United States is now part of a global world where an education today is what secures the future of tomorrow. In an age of vast amounts of information at every turn, however, American children are continually falling behind in educational skill compared with children around the world. Certainly if Americans want to continue supporting the
…show more content…
Summer breaks traditionally last around twelve weeks and are the longest break of the school year. Over the long summer break, a good portion of knowledge obtained during the school year is forgotten. Summer break was once looked at as a time to expand a young person’s mind with outdoor adventures learning about nature, summer camps full of socializing, or learning skills from older adults. Summer break has become a dreary, unstimulating time of the year for many young people, unless playing nonstop video games counts as stimulation. A more modern concept would expand the school year into the summer months by six weeks, thereby decreasing knowledge lost over the excessive summer break. The knowledge lost by children over the summer can be shocking. My son, Michael, finished the second grade with great grades in math and his teachers praise on how well he knew his multiplication tables. Michael certainly did not practice the multiplication tables over the summer break and by the beginning of the third grade had forgotten everything past multiplying by two. My nephew, Zander, finished kindergarten reading first-grade level books and over the summer forgot how to read all but the simplest of words. A longer school year would shorten the disproportionate summer break and reduce knowledge lost over this
Summer breaks traditionally last around twelve weeks and are the longest break of the school year. Over the long summer break, a good portion of knowledge obtained during the school year is forgotten. Summer break was once looked at as a time to expand a young person’s mind with outdoor adventures learning about nature, summer camps full of socializing, or learning skills from older adults. Summer break has become a dreary, unstimulating time of the year for many young people, unless playing nonstop video games counts as stimulation. A more modern concept would expand the school year into the summer months by six weeks, thereby decreasing knowledge lost over the excessive summer break. The knowledge lost by children over the summer can be shocking. My son, Michael, finished the second grade with great grades in math and his teachers praise on how well he knew his multiplication tables. Michael certainly did not practice the multiplication tables over the summer break and by the beginning of the third grade had forgotten everything past multiplying by two. My nephew, Zander, finished kindergarten reading first-grade level books and over the summer forgot how to read all but the simplest of words. A longer school year would shorten the disproportionate summer break and reduce knowledge lost over this