When I first heard ideas for year-round school, my thought was that it might be easier for working parents (the main pitch here in Philadelphia) but worse for student and teacher burnout. According to at least one advocacy organization though, the idea is to spread the year out by taking more short breaks rather than one long one. This kind of makes sense to me, but apparently a number of school districts have tried it and ended up scaling it back.

The National Association of Year Round Education advocates for districts to implement the “balanced calendar,” which shortens summer vacation and adds longer breaks called “intersessions” during the school year. The group’s suggested calendar uses a 30-day summer break and breaks for fall, winter, and spring of 15 days each, plus a three-day break for Thanksgiving…

After a long summer break, according to Hornak, teachers generally spend the first 20 to 40 days in school reteaching students to compensate for summer learning loss. With traditional school calendars, “schools are asked to remediate learning gaps that they are contributing to,” Hornak said. 

philadelphia.chalkbeat.org

For the affluent, and for the middle class willing to make some sacrifices, summer is a great time for enrichment for kids. Kids are susceptible to burnout like other human beings and deserve a break from the pressure of academics once in awhile. They can connect with nature, learn practical skills, or dive deeper into an interest like a sport or fine art, and meet like-minded kids that they might not meet other times. Work experiences and job training can be enriching if done right – but need to be careful with this one.

For working parents of limited means or just other priorities than spending all their money on private school and summer camp, school can be a godsend as a form of childcare, like it or not. School breaks can cause a lot of stress for parents who have to organize childcare and transportation to and from said childcare, without any corresponding change in their work schedules or responsibilities. Organizing childcare for a long summer break is stressful, but at least it can be done once and and then set for a few months, rather than having to do this for many short breaks during the course of the year.

For the most part, kids aren’t allowed to just run around in the woods or on city streets any more. This is probably good for their physical safety overall, and those days are not going to come back any time soon.

In an ideal world, all children would be able to have the types of enrichment experiences that affluent children have today. It could be done. It would take money and organization. Investing in children is the best investment our society can make, even from a purely hard-nosed economic perspective. It has to be the whole of society investing. It can’t be just parents of young children for a few years during what is supposed to also be their peak career years. That just doesn’t work for anyone from a financial or mental health perspective.

But affluent families vacationing in the Catskills, please just watch your teenage daughters around those “dirty dancing” instructors!