As the summer is fast approaching, I have been thinking about the benefits of year-round schools to traditional ones and ways that students can keep learning instead of taking a detrimental two-month break.
I previously worked at a book warehouse that specialized in book fairs for schools. At the time, we were working on bundling books for a project in Virginia where students that were noted as having difficulties in literacy were allowed to choose around five books with a tutor helping them to make sure they were reasonable. The students were charged with reading these books throughout the summer and working with their tutors to complete book reports on each one.
I was so impressed with the program and the ability it would have to keep children engaged in the concepts they had been working on in school and to extend them to possibly get ahead for the next year while other students were just sitting around playing video games for the most part.
Why doesn’t every school have a program like this? I realize that getting free books for students is expensive, but is the cost more than the cost of the remedial education that has to be applied at the beginning of each year to get students back to where they were when they left? It seems like an easy solution to empower our students to be their best and succeed.
Going back to year-round vs. traditional, I think that there is obviously a price incentive when facilities can be used all the time by double and sometimes triple the students but there is also a lot to be said for continuous learning. I used to think they were not a great solution, but my opinion is continually changing with more observation of where children are not being served on extended off-times.
What do you think? Are there other solutions to keep our students learning all the time?
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