Starting the first day of school, students begin counting down the days until that last bell rings in early June, indicating three months of sunshine, sleep, and socialization. As a high school senior and summer break veteran, it pains me to oppose the heavily anticipated summer relief from the everyday drudgery of school. But arguments favoring year-round school seem too important to ignore.

To begin, the current school calendar represents an antiquated system, rendered unnecessary by modern society. When the American school system was developed, many families relied on agricultural-based income. Thus, students were needed during harvest season to fulfill familial responsibilities. Today, a majority of Americans couldn’t tell you when harvest season is. Our calendar shouldn’t be dictated by its boundaries.

For educators, the benefits are clear: higher quality education with rapid advancement in all subjects. The learning loss occurring during summer is too detrimental; each school year, teachers spend an average of six weeks reteaching forgotten material from the previous year. This hiatus and subsequent review results in a total loss of one and a half years of schooling throughout a 13 year formal education.

I know many of my peers possess enduring devotions to summer break, insisting they’d die without it, yet complaining about the long stretches of school we endure consequentially. Students exhaust themselves almost beyond recovery during these stretches. Depression and anxiety, often caused by endless weeks of school, are a result of the current yet outdated agriculture-based system. Clearly, year round school has academic benefits; no learning loss over summer break creates an efficient education structure. But more important than brainpower, it holds a strong potential for improving the mental health of our young citizens. Given that opportunity, how could we pass it up?

— Liesl Bogaard