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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

Fair enough on the 6pm thing. However, there seems to be evidence [1] that the typical 2 month summer break is hurting student performance - especially for poorer students whose parents can't afford to put them into enrichment activities in the summer. How, exactly, would 11 month school years be a nightmare? Misalignment already exists - Colleges get 4 months off, don't they?

I also recall seeing a talk about this exact topic, but I can't seem to find it at the moment.

[1] http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/education/lear...

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So Chinese factories along with Chinese style education?

I strongly disagree. Finland leads the world in education because they provide individualised learning and teach critical thinking. The children start school there at a much later age too. They don't run a 9 hour a day, 11 month military camp for kids.

Importance of play: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Finland#Readiness_...

"Children too busy for playtime": http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/13/content_871182...

I agree that 6pm is too late to end the school day. I don't see the issue with 11 month school though. Especially since it doesn't necessarily mean less vacation time overall - that "lost" month can be spread across 2 week windows elsewhere in the year. The point is avoiding the big 2 month gap.

I would rather ask what is wrong with our educational system that makes a 2 month gap bad but a 1 month gap ok?

In the US there are plenty of summer programs for low income children. More important, summer is a time many kids work or be kids. This belief that he only place to learn is school is bunk. It is bad enough the amount of busy work students are assigned now (3+ hours) of homework a night. Adults get mad at our work / life balance, yet we seem bound and determined to heap soul destroying hours on our children. We need to get out of the mode we are raising factory workers and give children back some time to be creative and dream.

How can anyone justify putting children in a school for 10+ hours a day for 11 months? You wouldn't work that job and neither would I. Heck, in many countries it would be illegal to have an adult work those hours. College & HS are pretty close in most states.

Imagine being able to skip the annoying 2+ weeks of review at the beginning of every school year - that's the goal/benefit of trimming summer vacation to 1 month.

So, to save 2 weeks we take another month of the students time away from activities that might have been teaching the student different things than the school is willing to teach? Sounds like an unfair trade-off. School is not the only place of learning and cutting down the large breaks removes possibilities of doing something else just as educational and often times more fulfilling.

I'm pretty sure these studies have been debunked in the past. I tend to agree with the debunking, because the arguments against summer vacation always stand up a strawman with the assumption that "good parents" send kids to camp, take the summers off, etc.

None of my circle of friends went to camp. We played outside, hung out with grandparents, etc. My parents weren't teachers, so they didn't have summers off.

Personally, I lived for summer vacation until I was like 14. If you took that away, it would have negatively affected me, and many others.

> Personally, I lived for summer vacation until I was like 14. If you took that away, it would have negatively affected me, and many others.

I honestly think this is a product of society and not some intrinsic driver for kids in school. Would a 14 year old me like it if someone told me summer vacation was canceled? No. But if I had been in a system with a shorter summer vacation from the beginning, I don't think I would care too much.

Maybe I'm biased, but my best times with friends were usually during school months. Summers were usually spent playing a lot of video games and going on boring camping trips with various relatives. At the time I loved the break, but I can hardly remember a summer where something really interesting and eventful happened.

"No. But if I had been in a system with a shorter summer vacation from the beginning, I don't think I would care too much."

I suppose it's like someone that lives in North Korea: They don't know the freedoms they are missing because they've never had them.

" Summers were usually spent playing a lot of video games and going on boring camping trips with various relatives. At the time I loved the break, but I can hardly remember a summer where something really interesting and eventful happened."

Most of my favorite childhood memories happened during summer vacation. The thing is, once you are older..you can't ever re-create that time of complete freedom because you have life responsibilities. I don't want to take that a way from kids.

Here in Australia kids get 6 weeks off in summer, plus 2 weeks in autumn, winter, and spring. This seems much more sensible than getting everything off over the summer.

Here in France kids get 2 months off in summer, plus 1 week in autumn, 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks late winter, 2 weeks in spring. The best of both worlds from the kids point of view.

That's pretty much what my son has at his school here in Scotland.

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