Argument Essay Rough
Argument Essay Rough
Argument Essay Rough
Max Shaw
Mrs. Cramer
Comp Pd. 2
14 April 2022
For more than one hundred years, the school calendar has remained mostly the same,
with school being from late august to early June with a long break for the summer. While it may
not be perfect, it has worked well enough for children from generations and generations. Some
schools across the country have adapted to a new schedule, with year-round school with
dispersed breaks. While in terms of logistics this may be effective, it is not as effective in other
ways. The traditional calendar with summer break should stay because it provides a much-
needed break for students and administrators and provides the ability for summer sports teams
and camps.
students and administrators. “For example, one administrator related that she had been a year-
round elementary principal for three and a half years prior to moving to the district office. Now,
her highest concern with the year-round program is with administrator burnout. When she was a
year-round principal, her longest vacation was just two weeks.” (Wildman et al.) This shows that
during the year-round school calendar, the administrators get essentially no time off. This would
be pretty problematic because if the administrators of the school have no time off to look forward
to or to unwind with, they will not be nearly as productive and they will likely just be going
Shaw 2
through the motions. This leaves the administration without the critical opportunity for self-
assessment and planning for the future of the school. Therefore, the school seems to suffer
greatly because the administrators have no desire or time to improve themselves or the school.
Similarly, the students will go through the same actions, just going through the motions because
they have nothing to actually look forward to or work towards, and this further hurts the school
One argument against summer vacation is that students forget everything they learn over
the summer and go back to school in the fall unprepared, and that is why the number of schools
that have to start the year with review have to do that. It is argued that this makes the summer
break not effective and non-beneficial to the students in the long run. “I mean that school should
be a place where people learn about the exercise of power in our society and begin to find a place
within the structures that support it. Do shorter breaks improve retention of information?
Probably. Is that synonymous with learning? Not always.” (Powell) This shows that going to
school in the fall is not all about retaining everything they’ve learned from the past year, it is
about learning and figuring out what a person enjoys in school, as to better themselves for the
future. It also shows that even with the longer break, not only do people not always lose a portion
of the learning that they did, but it also shows that this has little correlation with the actual ability
to learn and how well they will do in school. It is also argued that summer break isn’t good for
the students in the long run, and this example shows the opposite. When analyzed, it shows that
the students’ learning isn’t hurt, and it has no real effect on how students go back in the fall and
learn.
Lastly, the long summer break helps sports teams and summer camps plan around the
summer in order to have it at the right times. Without summer break, these sports teams and
Shaw 3
camps would either not be able to exist, or just not be able to have kids from those school
activities have learned to plan their programs accordingly. Therefore, students at a year-round
school may not have availability to experience certain outside activities like summer sports
teams or camps” (McGuire). This example shows that without summer vacation, the students
would not be able to experience those activities, which can be key to children in developing
relationships and social skills. With summer vacation, they would be able to go to these camps
and sports teams and develop new interests outside of school and develop social skills. Not only
this, but the camps and sports teams would most likely not be able to stay in business or have to
just fold because they would have substantially less kids to play the sports and attend the camps.
This would obviously be bad for not only the kids that lose out on the opportunity to develop
new skills and friends, but also for the businesses and owners of the camps and sports teams that
In conclusion, summer vacation is a necessity for children and teens around the nation
and the world. Some schools have decided to adapt to a new system with year-round school with
more small, dispersed breaks. While the current system may not be perfect, it has worked for
generations upon generations. The system that some are suggesting may be better than the
current system in terms of logistics, but in just about every other way, the current system is
better. This is because the current system of summer vacation gives students and administrators
a much-needed break, and it provides the ability for summer camps and summer sports teams.
Shaw 4
Works Cited
McGuire, Brooke. "The Pros & Cons of Year-Round School." American College of Education,
www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-in-praise-of-summer-vacation/2016/07.
Wildman, Louis, et al. "The Effect of Year-round Schooling on Administrators." Education, vol.
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A54709073/OVIC?u=pl1949&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=17e4a127.