Comment & Debate
Jeanette Wat. “Extended Year-Round Schooling, Extended Success”. Naperville, Illinois – We are students under the traditional school system which was designed many years ago when our country was primarily an agricultural nation, and children were often needed to assist in the farms during the summer months. Consequently, an agricultural school calendar was developed in order to give children a long summer break specific to this purpose. It is clear that the traditional school calendar is not a calendar for learning, and this has caused students serious problems that require solutions from an extended year-round schooling system.
“Go Year-Round: A Push for True Summer School”. Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation – Summer vacation is a powerful anachronism that dates back to agrarian days, 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’. Today, now that fewer family farms remain and agricultural mechanization is standard, students need to be harvesting knowledge year-round.