日本の小学生の夏休みは２週間に短縮すべきか？
Are you enjoying your summer vacation?
As the longest vacation in Japan, a summer vacation is probably a great time for children. They get to spend a lot of time at home, play with their friends, go on a trip with their family, and so on. In this sense, a summer vacation must feel like some freedom for children.
In general, summer vacations for elementary school students begin in the middle of July and finish in the end of August. These students get to enjoy their freedom for more than one month without school. Huh, I miss it, too.
But, wait a minute.
Why are summer vacations for children so long?
Do they have to be more than 1 month long?
In fact, the length of summer vacations is sometimes discussed by teachers and schools, and therefore they often have different lengths school to school.
学校における夏休みなどの長期休暇は、学校教育法により各学校の設置者（公立⇨教育委員会、私立⇨学校法人）が定めることとされているだけで、日数に関する具体的な規定は存在しません。つまり極端な話、夏休みはなくても違法ではない、ということですね。
As you can see some data here, Chiba prefecture has the longest summer break of 44 days in 2022. Meanwhile, Nagano has only 27! That's more than one week shorter than Chiba!
What I want you to think about is whether summer vacations with a standard length is necessary or not. This would be a good starting point to decide which stance you are going to take.
Here are a few suggested reasons for your stance.
Some people would argue that shorter summer vacations would be better for some reasons. For example, it would be troublesome that children's long vacations do not match adults' breaks. Even though children have a longer break than adults, children do not see their parents at home during day time when their parents have work. As a result, it is easily imagined that children just waste their time by being lazy at home. If that's the case, they should go to school more often and be supervised by their teachers. In short, children would not be able to maximize their productivity when they are not with adults. They can neither go on a long trip without parents nor study hard without teachers.
On the other hand, summer vacations with the standard length would be effective when we think about people other than elementary school children. For instance, a summer vacation is a good chance for teachers to prepare for the rest of school years. It is one of the few opportunities for them to attend external teaching seminars, to manage/modify teaching plans, and to take a rest (seriously). More school days mean more time for children to learn, but it also means more work for teachers. Seriously, I personally would be really upset if my school shortens my break.
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The debate topic is, "Should summer vacations be just two week long for elementary school students in Japan?"
This time, we only talk about cases for elementary school students, and the suggested length of summer vacations is two weeks. I decided to go with "2 weeks" because it should be enough to complete most of the typical summer activities, such as seeing relatives, having a trip, and playing with friends. You may disagree with me about this perspective, and you can of course mention it in a debate.
If you have any questions, please let me know!
それでは、このトピックでどっちの立場を取るのか考えましょう！日本の小学生の夏休みは２週間に短縮すべきなのか、それとも現状の１ヶ月前後で維持しておくべきなのか？そもそも未成年の子供に１ヶ月以上のお休みは必要なんでしょうか。大人にこそ必要な気もしますが、それはまた別のトピックになりそうです。それでは皆さんの議論を楽しみにしています！
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