View from a Farley The Current Events and Opinion Weblog of Chris Farley

Sanctity of School Breaks

There’s a sad moment in every student’s summer when they realize that school is again on the horizon. Even for those of us who absolutely love school, it’s sad to see the freedom we enjoyed get replaced by our studies. When we are in school, we take solace in the fact that we have a vacation somewhere in our future, and if all that fails we have the summer to relax. So when we reach that sad moment and realize that we still have summer reading, it’s annoying. I’m willing to accept a certain amount of annoyance for educational purposes, of course, but I doubt the educational value of summer reading. I don’t think summer reading is an educational annoyance; I think it is just an annoyance.

The idea of summer reading, as far as I can tell, is this: Students have a few months off. If they spend their time swimming and doing things other than learning (which many will), their minds will atrophy. Vocabulary will float away, math concepts will quickly be beyond their grasp, and they’ll completely forget how to write an essay. Enter summer reading. Have students read books, work on math problems, and read and write in a foreign language. That way students will retain more information when they return to school in the fall.

I have little doubt that remaining intellectually active over the summer is a huge benefit for students when they return in the fall, but the benefit versus the cost simply does not justify work over the summer or over any vacation of more than a couple days. I’m a big advocate of working hard on school days: waking up early, studying hard, learning as much as possible, diligently completing homework, and keeping a busy schedule; but I’m also a big advocate of the breaks that are actually breaks. It is incredibly important for students’ emotional and physical state to keep vacations sacred — a time for students to unwind, recharge, and get ready to work hard when they return. It makes students more productive when they are in school.

The best analogy I can think of for this case is pulling an all-nighter. A misguided individual might stay up all night to finish a project without realizing that his or her efficiency is probably only a small fraction of what it usually is. He or she would probably rationalize by saying that because they are spending more time on the project, they are certainly getting more done. In reality, he or she would create a much better finished product in a much shorter time span if he or she simply went to sleep and worked on the project after taking a break. The idea behind summer work seems to be that if we take up more time with education to prevent students from degenerating over the summer, they will automatically be better students. No one seems to have stopped to consider that if we all took a break, a real break, we might just come back to school ready to tackle new material with enthusiasm and energy.

There is one final component to this, which, as with many education issues, has to do with trusting students. If summer reading is eliminated, there is a gap that students will have to fill. It will be up to students to keep learning and keep interested in school material, but at least it will be on their own terms. If students return to school unprepared because they did not keep up as they should have, then it will be their own fault. The most important lesson that the student will learn, however, is that they ought to keep on learning over the summer. Choices about education are so often made for students that the education about how to make choices is too often forgotten. If students are given control over their own education, then they will learn how to keep themselves on track rather than having an oft-resented restriction placed on them. The result is a valuable lesson for the student and, once students self-adjust, no change for teachers in the fall. As a dedicated student, I don’t need my teacher to tell me to read a book in French over the summer to keep up with my French. I know that if I don’t, I’ll struggle when I return. Now if only a teacher could entertain the notion that I might actually learn something if I had a choice about how to keep myself education, that would be great.

There really is no valid reason for schools to intrude on breaks. Students should defend breaks fiercely because breaks, no matter when they are, belong to them. Breaks belong to students, and students should be trusted with their education in that time. The basic drive to succeed will surely keep students learning. The ineffectual cavalcade of summer work, the grievous inefficiencies it causes, and the inevitable aggravation that ensues can and should stop.