"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"

"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"
By Tim Ross; The Sunday Independent 25 May 2008

This brief report from a major British Sunday Paper notes the release of a private study undertaken by a center-left think tank. The study suggests that the long summer recess is detrimental to a student's ability in retaining reading skills. Scheduled extended breaks occasion dramatic relapses in reading skills. The study calls for a revolutionary change in the academic year. Schools should remain is session for five- eight week long terms with 2week breaks between each term.

I find that this report is a little too dramatic and overemphasizes the structured reading facilitated at school. Some students do their best reading during their holidays. This reading is independent and healthy. It is important that often it is not directly linked to curricular assessment. It is here that a child can come to love reading. This applies to other extra-curricular activities that are healthy and beneficial in the growth of a child. Unfortunately for those students who do not live in a reading friendly environment summer vacations become reading wastelands. Free time is wasted due in large part to a deficient cultural milieu. Where children lack opportunities for growth (parks, safe playgrounds, camps, libraries) the state will use the school as the catchall.

It would be a shame, however, if the exception became the rule.