Here's a interesting point-counterpoint on year-round schooling. I don't have any personal experience with this, having attended schools with more or less traditional schedules. The summer break, while enjoyable, has always seemed counterproductive to student learning to me, as well as more than a little archaic. We are no longer an agrarian society where kids need to quit their readin', writin', and 'rithmetic to help plow the field. I would certainly not be opposed to working in a school system with a year-round schedule, if it gets proven results.
Of course, many will argue that there is no proof of results. I certainly couldn't find any statistics on-line. There was plenty of anecdotal evidence on both sides, but no empirical data sources. I am beginning to suspect that summer breaks are just too woven into our country's culture for us to part with them. Does anybody out there have any ideas/experience with this issue?
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I spent a year at the Highworth School for Girls in Ashford, Kent, England. In England, school begins after Labor Day and ends towards the end of July. You have about a six-week summer break, and then you have three terms separated by two weeks of vacation, and one week of vacation in the middle of each term.
Aside from the fact that I hated school there and just wanted to get it all over with, it was a pretty good system, because you would get these long breaks. I had only one year of experience with it, though, so I can't say much else about it.
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