What are the pros and cons of year round public education?

1. 84

   sholland10posted 12 years ago

   What are the pros and cons of year round public education?
   
   Are you for or against year round school?  How would it affect students, teachers, and community?  What are the flip sides to your argument?

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2. 74

   wheelinalloverposted 12 years ago

   Against when I probably should be for. The actual days in school don't change with year round school for the students. It is just broken up into smaller vacations. For people who live where there are snowy cold winters having a child home for an extended period during this time leaves the child very little to do. Since there are three who are in grade school living here it is not really something I would like. It really wasn't much different in the Sacramento California area where they had year round school either. The cold damp foggy days kept the children indoors anyway.
   
   The original reason for seasonal school was so the older children could help out on the farms that most of the parents ran. This of course for most of the United States no longer applies. If the few areas which it does including the Amish who are wide spread now still need their children home during the summer.
   
   They say from the students standpoint the teachers don't have to spend as much time going over material covered the year before. With the no one left behind rule in effect now this really doesn't make a difference in any school district I am aware of.
   
   From a teachers aspect, there is too much I don't know. Almost every time I have been involved with teaching it was year round. No month long breaks involved. For the most part I taught from people from twelve to thirty who were year round residents at the facilities I was employed by.
   
   From a community standpoint I have lived in areas which had both year round and traditional schooling. The only difference I noticed was less traffic in the winter and more in the summer. I noticed no difference in the economy of areas using either. This doesn't mean there wasn't one, it was just not something that affected me personally.

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3. 72

   lburmasterposted 12 years ago

   I am actually a full-time, year round college student. You get to learn more in a certain time. You get competative because you are ahead of other students. I will be getting my bachelor degree a year before I'm supposed to because of my education schedule. The only issue is that you need to take breaks every year in december. One month a year without school. Then another month worth of weeks off because of the week between spring and summer, another between summer and fall, a third week of spring break, and a last weak because of Thanksgiving break. So two months without school a year and ten with school. The student will get tired of it and have lower grades when burnt out which is why there are breaks.

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4. 80

   pstraubie48posted 12 years ago

   I actually taught in a year round school setting.
   The pro, the biggest pro, is the child does not 'lose' what they learn during the summer vaca time...it is continuously present, reviewed, and used...
   One huge con was the problems it created with day care for families.

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5. 80

   roxanne459posted 12 years ago

   Our community has not progressed to year round schools yet but I will definitely vote for it when it comes. The kids usually spend a good portion of their summer break bored anyway. It's great to have a break for vacations and family gatherings but I don't know to many parents who can miss 2 1/2 months of school so they can do family things. More frequently, they have to pay a lot of money to summercamps and daycares so they can work. I have to agree with your other commentors in the fact that the loss of education is the biggest reason to stay connected to school year round.

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