School calendars should keep summer breaks

Now that students will be moving to a new, fully air conditioned high school next year, the possibilities for more flexible scheduling like year-round school could be on the table.

Patricia McCraken was a student who grew up doing year round schooling in Virginia Beach, Va., and she is interviewed in an article called “The Pros and Cons of Year-round Schools” at Scholastic.com. In her year-round school, she felt that as soon as she started to get a grip on things, she would have another break. This made her learning difficult. 

Senior Houston Acuff said he believes that the traditional way of the school schedule is how it should be.

“All year round school benefits learning by retaining the information, but summer gives kids a break to look forward to, along with time to not worry about the stress of tests or grades.”

Acuff has some very good points that fellow classmates tend to agree with. Summer break you have three months of freedom and have the opportunity to get a job and hangout with friends, but two or four weeks doesn’t give a student the chance to fully enjoy those perks of break.”

Year round schooling is more of a job than anything else. It does not give students the chance to enjoy life and be a kid. Sure you have more frequent breaks, but you’re constantly changing grades, getting a job alone during this schedule is already hard. There’s plenty of research showing that there is a loss of learning over summer break, but students more than make up for it during the 180 days of school.

Acuff said, “Yeah, that’s my point. We already have enough school as it is, and I have a life. Those three months of break are crucial for everyone out there, including parents. For generations upon generations this system has worked for a reason. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”