The academic calendar is out of sync with how we live today. It’s time to ditch the big break.
by Michelle Cyca,
The last day of school is arguably the highlight of the year for kids. It’s also an ebullient milestone that fills parents with potent nostalgia and hazy longing for the summers of their own youth. Like a desert mirage, the next school year shimmers on the horizon of a hot, seemingly endless expanse of time.
But what if school didn’t end for the summer? What if breaks were divided more evenly throughout the year? Some education advocates tout the benefits of what’s called a “balanced calendar,” which spreads vacation time equally across the seasons—a reimagining of what school can be, for the betterment of working parents, teachers, and students alike.
The way we live, work, and raise children has transformed dramatically over time, while the structure of the school year is more or less the same as it was a century ago. Today, the majority of parents work—few can afford to stay home, even if they wanted to—and many receive only two weeks of paid vacation, the legal minimum. Schools, by comparison, may break for around a dozen weeks: two in winter, one or two in spring, and nine weeks in summer. When school is in session, its hours rarely line up with a typical workday—which poses even more logistical challenges to caregivers who work shifts or irregular hours. The assumption underpinning this academic calendar is that one parent is always available when school is out, or that a family can find and afford out-of-school care…Source: thewalrus.ca/
