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First off, I'd like to go into detail on my point that summer is boring after just two weeks. I know for a fact that summer is only fun for the first few weeks because it happens to me every year! I get off of school and initially yes, I'm excited to have no homework and assignments and I think of all of the fun things I'm going to do over the summer. Unfortunately, my plans always change and I normally only go to the beach a couple times because the good ones are so far away, I don't have a trailer or cottage so I only get to go camping maybe once and I end up sitting around my house being lazy for two months. I feel like I as a student would be satisfied with just a month off to enjoy the weather, go camping with family once and maybe hang out with a few friends, but then go back to school in August and begin to learn and have a schedule again.
I also believe that summer messes with our health. It's very important to get sleep and I know that school, all of the homework, etcetera does get in the way of that. I also believe having too much time off of school in the summer can mess with our health and sleep patterns because we have no reason to get up in the morning and we end up getting too much sleep. Too much sleep will cause us to skip breakfast and when we don't eat breakfast we normally don't eat lunch, which then messes up our energy levels and we'll just become walking talking zombies the entire summer when we're let off school for a break, to enjoy ourselves. During the school year we need to get up early, 7am so we can eat, get dressed, brush our hair and teeth, etc. we have structure, structure is very important for us and we should not let anything get in the way of it, if summer was only a month long we would not be wasting so much time sleeping, we'd be getting out, being active, socializing and then by August we'd have had enough rest and fun to return to school.
Lastly, I know that summer vacation deadens our ability to listen, interpret, focus and learn. When we are given the amount of time that we are, and we're told to spend it doing whatever our hearts'desire, we will end up wasting time. At school we are taught new concepts, then we are sent home to practice those by doing homework, reading, doing assignments, during summer we learn nothing that will benefit us academically, we don't do homework and we most often than not forget what we we're taught for 10 months prior. If summer was shortened by a month I bet we could see an improvement in the students when they returned to school not in September, but August, maybe they would be able to listen and not just hear because they weren't given an entire two months to play video games and ignore the people around them, maybe they'll still be able to interpret and pin point main ideas in reading and writing because they weren't reading for two months, and maybe they will be able to absorb all of the knowledge that they're being taught.
Maybe, just maybe, summer vacation should be shortened to just a month to keep students interested, to keep them healthy and to keep their abilities to listen, and learn alive. What is your opinion on this topic?