Most people think that summer break is not the right length, whether there’s not enough time for all our activities, or students are experiencing a learning lag. However, everyone has an opinion on summer break. Currently, in the United States of America (USA) summer break splits the school year and is about two months long. In other places in the world, summer break can range from one week to three months long. Some countries split their summer break into two longer breaks. But the question always is: “How long should summer break be?”
Studies show that students forget a lot of things they learned that year during summer break, “Scores from the widely used NWEA assessment show that kids forget much of what they’ve learned, up to three months’ worth, during the summer”(Scientific American). This shows that students do lose some of the material they learn during the school year. This proves that the less time students have to forget what they learned, the less they forget. Students and teachers also agree that summer break might be too long. EIS Principal Mrs. LaNova Schall said, “Summer break is too long. Students lose their momentum, routines are interrupted, and there is learning loss.”
EIS Vice Principal Mrs. Jackie Spring also agreed, saying, “Summer break should be four weeks long.”
On the other side of the argument, people say that summer break is too short, as studies show that summer break can improve mental health and reduce stress. According to the American Psychological Association, “Vacations help reduce stress by removing people from environments and activities that are associated with stress or anxiety.”
This shows that vacations and breaks from school help students reduce their anxiety and stress which is very helpful for their mental health. Eighth grade students Aly Boden declared, “Summer break is too short, because there is so much to do and sports take too much time. You don’t have enough time for vacation.”
Eighth grade math teacher Mr. Zach Crutcher said, “I wish it was longer because it would be nice for everyone to have time for summer activities.”
There’s two sides to an argument, but there is also a middle. Some people think that summer break is the right length. Some students and teachers both think that summer break should stay the same. Eighth grade Language Arts and journalism teacher said, “I think it is the right amount of time because it is long enough to do all the things you want to but it’s not excessive.”
In conclusion, there are a lot of opinions and thoughts on this discussion. But there is no answer that will make everyone happy. In the end, everyone learns differently and everyone needs different amounts of break time and relaxing time.
