educação... haverá perdas [da parte dos alunos] nas férias de verão...? pergunta [que parece pertinente]... lá pelos 'states' [será só por lá...?]...!

"The idea of summer learning loss -- the implication being that it's risky to give kids a three-month vacation from school because they'll forget everything they were taught -- has become the media's favorite seasonally specific education topic. And that's not just because they're desperate for something to write about when school's out. It's a story we're all predisposed to embrace because we're already nervous about time off for children. It's widely accepted, for example, that kids need to be doing some homework every night during the school year lest they find themselves gravitating to insufficiently constructive activities.

Experts who study creativity like to talk about doing and resting, painting and stepping back from the canvas, thinking about a problem and taking a break during which a new insight may sneak up when we're not expecting it. (Recreation can mean re-creation.) If, on the other hand, we're enamored of a factory model, then we're going to be more concerned about productivity than imagination -- and, theologically speaking, more worried about idle hands being the devil's tools. Busyness becomes an end in its own right. We frown when our kids waste time and feel a little ashamed when we ourselves are guilty of it. ^[1]

I shouldn't be surprised, therefore, that when I've raised questions about the practice of assigning homework on a regular basis, the most common challenge I've faced isn't related to the putative academic benefits (which, incidentally, research generally fails to support)^[2] but to the prospect that children will just misspend all that time on Facebook or video games. It's kind of interesting, when you think about it: No teacher ever admits to assigning busywork, but this defense of homework itself has nothing to do with the value of the assignments; the point is just to keep kids busy.

It's predictable, then, that we'd be disinclined to let children chill just because it's hot out. We're primed and ready to respond when someone claims that all the progress students have made during the school year will be lost forever if they're allowed to slack off during the summer. It's a Sisyphsean metaphor buried in our DNA: The minute you let up in your efforts to roll that rock toward the summit, well, you know what happens. "L'école d'été pour tous les enfants!"

What does the research say? Is there any truth to the summer loss claim? Yes. But it's more limited than is generally acknowledged and it doesn't point to the solution that's most commonly endorsed."

para ler o resto do artigo... aqui.