EDITORIAL

There are precious few traditions in this culture that just don’t deserve

to be disrupted.

Turkey on Thanksgiving. Football on New Year’s Day. And, of course, those

lackadaisical, three-month-long summer vacations from school.

From the earliest beginnings of this country’s education system, kids

have been free from the daily grind of reading, writing and arithmetic

during June, July and August -- when the weather is much more conducive

to playing at the beach than number-crunching in a stuffy classroom.

And after nine straight months -- minus two weeks in the winter and one

in the spring -- of learning, summer vacation is a reward for moving up

to the next grade level, not to mention a much-needed break.

Now, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is proposing to change all

that with an alternative school calendar.

Under this proposed calendar, school would start in August -- the

cruelest of summer months, especially without air conditioning in many

classrooms. Classes would get out at the end of June. In return, winter

and spring breaks would each be three weeks long.

Granted, the reason behind the idea is a good one. Shorter times between

school sessions, officials argue, will improve education, particularly

for those students just learning English.

Some educators believe that children lose what they have learned during

long breaks.

But what about learning loss during the three-week vacations that will

take place right in the middle of the science experiment or the history

book chapter?

And the vacation proposed for the spring is right when teachers are

trying to prepare students for important aptitude tests -- probably not

the best time for a long break.

If the district really wants to change the calendar, officials should

consider year-round school, which, though still controversial, is at

least a proven method for learning retention.

The year-round system has been adopted on campuses throughout the nation,

and although there is inconclusive evidence of scholastic improvement,

some studies show students retain more knowledge when they are constantly

in class.

We applaud the district’s effort to look for new ways to improve

education. That’s an attitude that our students need.

But we’re not convinced at this point that they don’t also need that

age-old tradition of summer vacation.