Summer break evolved over time

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“Why do schools have summer break?” asked students in Greg Thompson’s sixth-grade social studies class at Gurnee’s Woodlands Middle School.

Students and teachers look forward to time off in the summertime. Most schools today break for about two and a half months during the summer months.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Two hundred years ago, school was in session for only six months each year in some farm communities so students would be available to help their parents tend their crops or livestock.

City kids attended school almost year-round, with only four weeks of vacation each year.

Inconsistencies in the public school system of the 1800s — poorly trained teachers, inadequate course work and an irregular calendar — inspired Horace Mann of Massachusetts to reform his state’s school system. The policies he established were then adopted by other states.

In 1837, Mann was appointed the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He researched the education systems in other countries and developed teacher training and education plans based on his research.

He advocated for all children to attend schools regardless of race or religion, and put forth the idea that taxes would fund the public schools. He discouraged the use of corporal punishment in schools. He helped to build on the idea of the Normal School — schools that provided education for teachers.

At the time, people believed that too much stimulation was harmful, so students and teachers were given a break in the school calendar.

Physicians thought that diseases were spread during the summer months when students and teachers met in the classroom, so summertime became the designated vacation time.

The education system is constantly being re-evaluated.

Today’s educators aren’t so sure that such a long summer break is needed, and many districts are lengthening the school calendar and the school day.

About 4 percent of schools nationwide have adopted a year-round calendar in which the breaks are two- to three weeks in length at varying times throughout the year.

Check these out

Check these out

The Warren-Newport Public Library District in Gurnee suggests these titles on summer vacation:

Ÿ “Don’t Whistle in Schools: The History of America’s Public Schools,” by Ruth Tenzer Feldman

Ÿ “38 Ways to Entertain Your Parents During Summer Vacation,” by Dette Hunter

Ÿ “What I Did On My Summer Vacation: Kid’s Favorite Funny Summer Vacation Poems,” selected by Bruce Lansky

Ÿ “Life in America 100 Years Ago: Education,” by Linda Leuzzi

Ÿ “Going to School in American History,” by Dana Meachen Rau