Year Long School Year

As modern society advances at astonishing rates, it is a common occurrence that many mandated policies are rarely reviewed, and often become outdated. One of the best instances of this could be depicted by the modern school year. The school year was optimized for a different time, and as such, needs to be changed. The change to an all year school would allow for improved learning, greater knowledge, and an increased number of breaks throughout the school year. The need for change in the school calendar is very crucial, and be beneficial for multiple purposes.
Many schools in the United States are beginning to change their school calendar so their students attend class all year round. The changes still allow the students time off in the summer, but they do not have the three months of break most students in America receive traditionally. Instead, they get a break of a couple weeks in the summer, and the remainder of the time is divided up and put into other breaks throughout the year. All schools in America should switch to a year-round calendar to accommodate the different and higher level of learning needed to be successful in our changing world and society. The traditional school system was designed many years ago when our country was an agricultural nation. Therefore, the school calendar was developed having a long break in the summer so students could assist their family with cultivating crops and other aspects of farm life. The traditional school calendar was not a calendar for higher learning, and should be extended to meet the needs of modern day students. There are many explanations as to why the traditional school calendar should be changed.

Without a doubt, having an extended year-round school solves the problems of traditional schooling. Students do not have the burden of remembering of all the information learned over the prior school year over the long break. Changing will also allow students to come into the next grade refreshed and ready. The implementation of a year long school year also takes away the need for review on forgotten material so teacher can concentrate on teaching new material instead of spending time reviving old, forgotten concepts. Learning in a year-round school system is not as rushed as the traditional education system allowing students that are falling behind to easily access help during a short break. The implementation of a year long school year would also allow to teachers to go more in depth when it came to their lessons as they would not have to constantly be reviewing information due to extended breaks.

Another benefit of changing the school year to a year long system is that it would allow for greater learning. A great example of this would be countries such as Japan in which students attend school year long, and consistently receive better tests scores than students in America. Additionally, if all the grades from preschool to twelfth grade were yearlong, students could also gave the ability to begin college earlier.
The switch from a school with summers off to going all year long might seem drastic initially, but with time it would be commonly accepted. With all these new suggestions implemented, students could gain vast amounts of knowledge and be better fit to compete within the ever changing, international world.