Education Failure - Longer Summers

Michigan recently announced plans to extend "summer vacation" for schools to Labor Day. Part of the rationale was that the present practice of starting schools the last week of August hurt the tourism industry. Well, that's probably true. But a lot of students go back to school early in one way or another for things like sports practices or band camps or knitting circles. The new schedule simply moves vacation from other parts of the year back into summer the way it was when I was a kid in the agrarian society.

I find it kind of refreshing that our politicians are so concerned with the quality of education that they give our kids some extra time in the summer to soak up more sunshine to sustain them through the dark days of winter.

Interestingly, the U.S. does not appear in a list of nations that have 33 weeks or more per year of elementary education. However, when you look at the list, you have to wonder if there is a relationship between time in classroom and economic success. I suspect that the nature of education in many of these countries is different from the U.S. Sure, readin', writin', and 'rithmetic are taught, but perhaps with religion thrown in for some countries or more social studies in others. Just speculating. Russia has the 3rd longest school year and Mexico the 5th longest. I'm not sure that their countries have been particularly successful as a result.

And that may be just the point: education failure or success is not achieved in an educational vacuum. Without a social and political fabric to provide opportunities to use educational training to its fullest, the amount of time spent in a classroom might just be irrelevant. Certainly, the more time one spends reading and receiving instruction, the more information can be absorbed. But information without the freedom of application is trivia.

So should summer vacation be extended to a more traditional Labor Day? I don't believe the week or so extension (and subsequent reduction during the rest of the year) makes any difference at all. Is 26 weeks of classroom versus an average of 40 weeks for the longest 36 school years important? That depends on the opportunity to use the extra training.

India is an example of where those extra weeks are eventually turning into a lot of extra Ph.Ds. At least for a segment of its population. European countries make up many of those top 36. Some of those nations have prospered and some not so much. So the ultimate question is: should education focus on improving a nation's wealth or its intellectual quality? The anwser is yes.