The origin of summer vacation was due to the large number of children who were needed to work on their family’s farm, a fact that is irrelevant in modern society. Farming is a dwindling industry, as a massive farm can now be operated by a couple grown men and some machines. So, why has summer vacation not been eradicated? This is a question many people from the academic world ask every year. Researchers believe that, “schooling schedules have long been based more on cultural patterns than on efficient education strategies. We 've run school like this not because it works for education, but because it works for society” (Dan Luzer). However, is summer vacation actually beneficial to the development of our …show more content…
This figure is actually higher than a majority of countries. However, many countries have shorter school days and longer school years. For example, India spends 200 days in the classroom on average and only 800 hours per year, while China spends 220 days and over 1,000 hours in school per year. Each of China and India have been scoring higher in academic testing than the US in recent years, and their shorter vacations may play a vital role. Over the course of a three month absence from school, students do lose almost all of the information they learned over the prior school year. So much so that American students, “fall below developing countries like Latvia and the Slovak Republic due to a second-rate education system” (Dan Luzer). How can a country known so much for it’s innovation and technological superiority fall so far behind in education? Our educational system has to come into question, and an extended summer vacation is a major factor in this.
Summer vacation is an essential piece of American culture. America is the cultural center of the world, and this is due to the creativity and innovative mindset of our country. It is a place where people can become what they desire and their passions lead them there. Summer vacation is a time when kids can explore their environment and develop and understanding of himself, and America’s innovative mindset can be attributed to