Our Right To A Lazy Summer

By Erin Walk

School days seem long enough and summer seems short enough to us already, right? Those three day weekends go by like blur, soon to be replaced by another busy week.

Well, Obama doesn’t seem to understand. Yes, America is behind on school days compared to the rest of the world. But, do we really need more? Adding more school days or making them longer would cause skipping classes to increase as well as decrease the already limited time students (especially high-schoolers) have to pursue their own interests. Students need this time. We want to read, practice an instrument, make jewelry, etc… One way that we can meet other people with our interests and work with them is after-school activities. What would the after-school sports programs that go until 5:00 do if school let out at 4:10? Go until 7:00? When would students do homework? Yes, these clubs could be cancelled. We could pursue our interests at 7pm, supposing we don’t have much homework. If being “well rounded” is so important, we need time to do it. We need to see our friends and pursue our hobbies to be happy. It has been shown that stress leads to sickness and depression. We need time after school to just be ourselves and not be doing homework.

If we got home at 5:00, pretty soon it would be dark outside, especially in the winter. The only time kids have to get outside at school is P.E., and many upper classmen don’t take it. How would we exercise outside of school if it was dark soon after we got home?  Yes, we could go to bed late because we went to a sports class, or wake up early to go to the gym. All of these activities cut into our already packed schedules. Waking up early guarantees less sleep or necessitates an earlier bedtime, which we can’t do if we have lots of homework. Going to bed late doesn’t work, because we have to wake up pretty early in the morning and kids need their sleep.  Obesity is a big problem in our nation and by making kids sit inside for even longer every day will only increase it and not give kids time to exercise. Really, lengthening school days would lead to unhappy, unhealthy students who have no time to pursue interests outside of school.

So, what about decreasing summer time? Summer is a time to relax and renew for the new school year. Kids need that time. The go-go-go lifestyle that we seem to adapt during the school year is just too hard and stressful to keep up year-round. Another week or two of school won’t hurt us, but a month? It would lead to more stressed out students, parents, and even teachers. Where would the family vacations go? In a world where peace and multi-cultural diversity are so important, we need to visit other countries and learn of their customs as well.

I believe that if Obama really feels that we are behind, he needs to find another way to catch up. By adding school days or decreasing summer vacation, we would really fall behind more. However, I also believe that there are other, more pressing issues right now that need Obama’s attention. He can turn back to this once he has solved some of our other problems and perhaps see this one from a different view.