Cons of an Extended School Year

Every year, millions of students are looking forward to their summer vacation. What would happen if the school years would be extended by 10 school days or even a whole extra month? Students and businesses alike would cry out in anger from implementation to an extended school year. Such an extension would cut into summer, an important time of year, exchanging its cherished benefits to questionable benefits of an extended school year.

By lengthening the school year, aspects of summer such as play and profit are cut short. Play is necessary part of life. Studies shows that play is vital for brain development. By reducing time, we are also reducing the positive effects of play on the brain.

Not only does cutting summer have effects on the brain, it also has economic consequences. Summer is primetime for tourism; however, with an extended school year, this major profit generating time is reduced significantly. Based on 5-year average of summer revenues, a three week school year extension could cause North Carolina alone to potentially lose 600 million dollars in business profits (http://georgiansneedsummers.com),

Summer camps have many benefits to school age students. Most camps involve more hands on activities than what school provide. Camps also teach children real world skills. If schools got in the way of summer camps, it would take a huge piece of the 11 Billion dollars that they take in each summer.

If extended school year is implemented in the majority of schools it may not result in better education. Japan, for example, consistently outscores the US in math and science tests, but Japanese students spend less time in school than their American counterparts (ecs.org). Summer is an important time of the year for students; the United States cannot afford to cut it short for such dubious results.

By trading the traditional school year for an extended school year, the United States is taking an unnecessary risk for a few, if any benefits. In the words of Samuel Johnson, "He is not wise man that will quit certainty for an uncertainty"... Why should we quit our own certainty of an extended of one. Students should never have to have an extended school year into the summer. Kids need to be kids. Our economy needs the students to have summer.