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"Over-scheduling" is by definition harmful, but the core disconnect is that there's a 9-month calendar of organized learning (with occasional breaks) and year-a
by elgenie 10y ago
"Over-scheduling" is by definition harmful, but the core disconnect is that there's a 9-month calendar of organized learning (with occasional breaks) and year-around parental commitments. If the article is correct and boredom is beneficial for internal motivation, it doesn't make sense for that boredom to be "overscheduled" into a 3-month section of the year.
In the US: "the 9-month calendar that most schools operate on was established when 85% of Americans (and students) were involved in agriculture, and when climate control did not exist in school buildings. In today's United States, only about 3% of Americans are engaged in agriculture [and] most schools have air conditioning." The result is a roughly one month loss in education level over the three month break, depending on parental involvement (the kids whose parents are less involved in brain enriching activities lose more). [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_learning_loss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_learning_loss
- ivanhoe 10y agoThey loose some math & reading skills, but they also get some other skills and benefits, depending how they spend the summer. Some will socialize, some will play sports, some will read a book or play games. And if they're at least averagely intelligent, these other skills might be more important for their future mindfulness and life, since they'll be able to pick up on math & reading anyway, it's not THAT hard after all. Also, in my own experience, forgetting and then re-learning usually leads to a much deeper understanding of the subject than what you get first time you go through it.