by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: March 13, 2010

Whenever ideas of lengthening school days, the school week or the school year come up, the idea that children will suffer in such settings comes along. There is little concern for the ages of the children, where younger ones are absolutely not suited to sitting in order, focusing on learning, and following commands all day.

There is a time in every day when the activity must stop and the brain must process and order new concepts. There are also times in every day when children need to be on their own, focusing on other things than learning, such as using their imaginations, practicing and playing, and interacting socially with their families and friends.

 In the past, farm children, who composed the larger group of children in most countries, had to go to work at very young ages during the Summer. Later, children who had no work to do spent months in whatever activities they could find to do, often with distressing consequences of bad sleeping and waking habits, getting into trouble, and easily forgetting quite a bit of what they had learned during the previous school year.

But, during Summer breaks, the children were allowed to socialize more, to read books for pleasure rather than under pressure, to get into Summer programs, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, and Scouting. This allowed them to interact with their parents and the community, and to engage in pursuits that were different, yet still educational in one way or another. As a result, the ways in which children will find a way to learn things, whether incarcerated or free, were expanded.

 Otherwise, we are just incarcerating children for increasing lengths of time and in bad and artificial environments for reasons other than allowing the complete learning process to happen. It might be more convenient for the parents to let the schools be responsible for their children for a greater part of the year or day, but it is changing the nature of childhood, and not always in a good way.

It has to be said, in favor of year 'round school or longer school years that the shorter period of time spent without studying or learning something makes for a better start to the next school year, When there are months of educational inactivity, learning the new material and getting the sleep cycles in order can make for a slow start to the new year.

But the blanket decisions, regardless of age or circumstances, to lengthen school terms, need to consider the children, the benefits to their education and nothing else, including getting more Federal funds that somehow do not end up in the classroom, the convenience of not having to babysit, and the latest academic theoretical fad concerning education.

In summary, the school year should not be lengthened. Rather, the Summer break should become more organized and fruitful, with bookmobiles, goal based programs, such as earning scouting badges, community work or in the arts, or special tutoring. This gives education, but in broader areas than in academics.

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