The School Year Should be 12 Months Long (Get Rid Of Summer Vacation)

I would like to start out by saying the I was kind of confused by your statement, "I don't want anyone to think that it is necessary to come out with an idea of giving the students a huge break of 2 months somewhere randomly in the year." That is what summer vacation is, is a 2 month break from school. The way you stated that makes me believe that you are saying that you do not agree with summer vacation, therefore you would actually agree with having school all year long. So if you could please clarify that, I would greatly appreciate it. As for students forgetting what they learned over summer vacation, here is the evidence. It was posted February 19, 2010 by a guy named Ryan Normandin, who is a journalist for, The Tech, a newspaper that focuses on student life. http://tech.mit.edu... In the third paragraph, it states, "Research has shown students retain only five percent of what they learn in lecture, making it one of the least efficient ways of teaching. Over the summer, students forget so much information that teachers are forced to spend valuable time reviewing old material. The fact that our model of public education has not undergone significant change in 200 years is a major factor in the decline of American education. It is time to turn that around. There are three areas that we must examine: the school year, what is taught, and how it is taught." The entire fifth paragraph states, "The benefits will be numerous. First, students will be in school more often, giving them time to both learn material in-depth and to be creative in doing things they enjoy. It will eliminate, for the most part, any significant time lost on reviewing forgotten material." The average teacher's salary goes from $40,447-$44,175. http://www.payscale.com... Yes, teachers do get paid out of taxpayer's money. But I have done a little research and have come up with the following, and as well have included links to how I got all my information. ~ http://www.cnpp.usda.gov... As of January of 2010, the lowest average grocery bill for a family of 2 between 19 and 50 years old would be $80.80 per week which would round out to $3,818.40 a year. The highest for that same family would be $350.40 per week rounding out to $4,203.60 for the whole year. The lowest grocery bill for a family of 4, which includes a couple 19-50 years old with 2 children 2-5 years old is $117.70 per week, or $5,649.60 per year. That same family could also have the highest grocery bill of $135.10 per week, or $6,121.20 per year. That is just the lowest amount of money the average family spent in January of 2010 for each of the categories I named off. The graph I included will show everything else in more detail and depth. ~http://www.articleclick.com... A study done in this year of 2010 has shown that the average amount of money spent on gas per year is approximately $14,400. That may not be the case with everyone, but that is the average spent per year ~http://www.babycenter.com... This chart shows that the lowest average child care will cost about $316-$1,221 a month, or $3,792-$14,652 a year for a day care, and $2,167-$3,033 a month, or $26,004-$36,396 a year for a nanny. Now I have added it up, and the lowest cost of grocery bills, gas, and child care for one year will be about $22,070.40, while the highest will be about $56,917.20. Now if we were to take out the child care, since the children would be in school that would save families approximately $36,396 a year. Going on what my opponent stated that "teachers would make about 25% more money," that would mean that the teachers would be making about $10,111.75-$11,043.75 more. That would still leave the families with between $25,352.25 and $26,284.25 of extra money. Now granted, during the summer kids have camps and things like that they may attend in order to stay out of trouble, but how many of them would actually WANT to go to stuff like that, in which many of them may see as "childish?" If they were doing something that they didn't really have a choice to do, they would be more likely to stay away from thing that could harm them. And finally, as for the "lack of tourism in popular vacation spots" my opponent says "would hurt the economy," I bring back my first proof. http://tech.mit.edu... The entire seventh and eighth paragraphs state it all. I firmly believe that with all my links provided and everything I have stated, it IS in our best interest to have school all year long.