The 32 Illinois year-round schools agree with the conclusions of the Aug. 10 editorial “A safer summer in the schools.” School is the safest place to be for many of our children. But it isn’t enough.
The Illinois Association for Year-Round Education advocates the 180-day, year-round calendar for all schools as a way to not only keep Chicago children safe during all seasons, but to keep them learning in a consistent pattern, eliminating the “long summer of forgetting.”
The year-round alternative calendar does not close down and re-open school for 10 weeks, but offers shorter periods for vacation/intersession throughout the year. In Chicago, year-round students and teachers are in school for 60 days and out for 20 days in a continued-learning pattern. Children also can take advantage of the 20-day period to catch up on subjects they are having trouble in, to hone their test-taking skills or to investigate other areas of interest.
Consequently the departure from the traditional agrarian school calendar allows our buildings to become more cost-effective, our vandalism rates tend to decline, our children are in the safer environment and they are learning throughout all seasons of the year.
