The Importance Of Summer Breaks

It’s the first day back from summer break. It’s been a long break full of vacations, hanging out with friends, and working. You walk into math class expecting to hear the same rules you just heard three times before. Except, you’re surprised with a pop quiz. The teacher goes on to explain how it’s not for a grade but just to see where everyone is at after the break. It’s should be a review. You’ve learned all of this last school year, but you can’t seem to remember anything. Just last school year, you would have aced it, but the whole quiz looks unfamiliar. Summer learning loss. Every student experiences some form of summer learning loss. Whether it is forgetting material taught from the previous year, or forgetting how to act in a classroom, …show more content…
The frequent breaks allow students to come back feeling refreshed and their minds to clear and become rejuvenated. During the breaks, students can relax so they can come back to school ready to learn. It helps teachers because they get a break from their job, and it makes it easier on them when the students want to learn. Students will pay attention better and be more alert. It helps to break apart the school year and not make it one continuous learning session. Students can go on vacations throughout the year instead of waiting for summer break. Mary Brown is a middle-school teacher in Wake County, where they go to school for nine weeks with a three-week break between academic sessions, says she favors for year-round schooling because it “offers the kids a break from school when they need it. They didn’t have the bored glazed-over look of kids who have been in school for weeks on end with no breaks in sight” …show more content…
Students who come from low-income families don’t get as many opportunities as high income students because they don’t get the same learning chance during the summer (French 29). Summer break is good in theory, spending time with friends, tanning, swimming, etc., but many low-income students spend their break on the couch. Most of the time, low-income students live in neighborhoods that don’t offer the best environment for growing children. When children get bored, they seek parks as a source of entertainment, but often they are plagued by drugs. It’s hard to play when you don’t have toys or a nice park (Hammond). Oftentimes, children from low-income families have a tendency to get into trouble with the law. They steal because they cannot afford the same things as their peers. This can cause a bigger academic gap between low and high- income students because of their tendencies to stay inside during the summer. A study by Paul Von Hippel said that students from low income families saw improvements in reading test scores in year-round schools over traditional: “‘There may be a slight advantage for students from the poorest families in attending year-round schools, at least when it comes to improving their reading’” (qtd. in Grabmeier). Putting children in a learning environment will help them because they have a shorter period of time