Our children need more time in class each day and more days in school each year! That's the conclusion of virtually every major education reform report published nationwide since 1983, when the original "Nation At Risk" report was presented.
That straightforward idea - more of our children's time should be applied to learning - is the renewing force behind an old idea: year-round schools. Without it, and some other changes, too, education reformists warn that America will not be competitive in the world's increasingly complex and interdependent economic marketplace in the 21st century.Our current school year of about 180 days in the fall, winter and spring, with the summer off, is a legacy of our agrarian past. If our nation is going to add more than just a few days to the school calendar, those new days must come during the summer. And to do that seemingly simple act, a sea-change in our culture is necessary.
The notion that children need a full summer's vacation is virtually a minor deity in America. The faithful claim that, without it, children can't be children like their parents were. They assert that children should not be deprived of the ennobling opportunity to work a summer job or the enriching experience of summer travel or the chance to participate in other kinds of organized summer learning activities at camps, libraries and museums, or simply to enjoy an extended period of innocently goofing off without a care in the world or the fun of getting some good sunburns at the beach or poolside.
The problem with this line of emotion-inciting thinking is evident when a single question is posed: "Can our society afford to continue to provide an elementary and secondary education to our children in the way we used to do it in years gone by?" The education reformists are a single chorus of "nays" to that question.
The reformers are concluding that children really don't need a long summer vacation to rejuvenate themselves. After all, psychological renewal was never a reason for closing school for the summer. It was to enable youngsters to lend a hand in the farm work.
Moreover, from the personal renewal perspective, psychologists tell us that several shorter vacation breaks are much more effective. And the neat side effect is that, while children refresh themselves well in the several breaks throughout the year, they don't forget as much as they do in a full summer's time.
Business folk cringe when they see the physical plant of a school district sit unused for almost a quarter of a year. And sociologists shrug in despair when they ponder the wasted opportunity to make schools true community centers for children and youth, with supervised study and recreation periods throughout the year, that are an integral part of the better year-round school programs.
The tourist industry isn't pleased with the year-round school, the idea of lengthening the school year, either. Indeed, some of these interests have persuaded state legislatures to enact laws prohibiting the opening of schools in the fall earlier than the Labor Day weekend.
Year-round schools will cost more. But the profit our nation stands to gain in improved educational performance is enormous.
(Thomas A. Shannon is executive director of the National School Boards Association.)