There are two things I like about the recent Washington Post Editorial I read about year-round schooling. Firstly, I like the concept itself, for some pretty simple reasons:

1. Kids learn more and forget less.
2. Parents who work can cope a little better.
3. There is no reason (not educationally, not practically) in today’s world for the school calendar that most of us currently keep.

Secondly, the school that the author refers to in the article uses its intercessions to focus curriculum around “big ideas.” If you are asking “what is the big idea?” then you’re not alone. Basically, curriculum focused this way allows an interdisciplinary inquiry into larger issues that affect all areas of ‘traditional’ curriculum.

One example of a “big idea” might be something like “What is the relationship between governments and innovation?” Such a broad question can encompass history, science, literature, art, mathematics, civics, and much more. It also leaves the student, after delving into various aspects of the “big idea,” with a firm impression of (in this case) those relationships throughout history.

This type of inquiry allows students to make evaluations and to become thinkers for our future – by “our” here I mean civilization.

- Heather