Argumentative Essay On Year Round School

Words: 663
Pages: 3

Year-round schooling began as early as the 1800s in urban regions such as New York and Chicago, according to Joe Matthews, a staff writer for The Los Angeles Times (Matthews 2). In year-round schools, students attend classes for periods ranging from six to nine weeks straight, which is then broken up by two to four week vacations. The traditional school year, which has three months of vacation every summer, is a result of the United States of America’s past agricultural society. Due to contemporary changes in population and urban growth in the U.S., year-round schooling is now the norm as it is a partial answer to such recent developments. However, the implementation of year-round schooling is ineffective for students because the system does not establish an advancement of academic performance, adds to expenses significantly, and damages a …show more content…
Matthews borrows from the research findings of Amariah Bringham, a 19th century psychiatrist who is credited with closely studying children and concludes that too much studying contributes to a rising tide of insanity among the young. The future depends on the young and it is critical that a balance between work, in this case schooling, and play ensures that children grow up healthy and lead their nation to further prosperity. Year-round schooling is discouraged because of poor ventilation in buildings and confining environments, which could ease the “spread of disease among students” (O’Sullivan 397). Such conditions mean that the country’s future is already taking a beating health-wise through coercive adaptation to year-round schooling. How can the country prosper if its future develops under unhealthy conditions and disease in the learning environment? Moreover, a mutual feeling remains among many “physicians that over-schooling is unfavorable to a child’s health” (Desoff). Doctors believe that students are frail, both in body and brain to study for too