>that poorer, less supported children actually regress during long summer breaks //
Presumably you mean poorer as in less financially wealthy.
Is this just an observation that parents who educate their kids educate their kids?
Isn't your proposal just a way of harming the education of more able kids?
If parents are neglecting to aid their children's education over a long summer break why do you feel that dividing that break up will stop the parents from neglecting to aid their children's education?
I believe the mechanism is simply that you forget stuff if not actively using it (for the long holidays) and that practising something you are doing wrong is more harmful than not doing it at all (for homework).
Both problems are mitigated by having parents that have the time, ability and inclination to help you. If we're trying to find out who has the most well-off parents we could abolish school and award jobs based on the zipcode you were born in. If we're trying to actually educate a population then we should ditch the long holidays and the homework.
This would only hurt better-off children relatively (and may even help some or even all of them in absolute terms), as their peers would no longer be such poor students. I like to think the benefits of having an educated population would outweigh the benefit of being a big fish in an educationally small pond.
You make good points but you appear to be equating financial poverty with intellectual poverty. Whilst there are probably pretty well defined links and very strong correlations they are not coterminous factors.
>If we're trying to actually educate a population then we should ditch the long holidays and the homework. //
Yes educating populations is a different consideration. What I'd ask first is for what purpose you're educating the population? Don't presuppose a direction behind that question please, I'm absolutely not saying that people shouldn't be educated (possibly even against their will) but one needs to start the whole system with an ideal IMO to which to work - why?
Presumably you mean poorer as in less financially wealthy.
Is this just an observation that parents who educate their kids educate their kids?
Isn't your proposal just a way of harming the education of more able kids?
If parents are neglecting to aid their children's education over a long summer break why do you feel that dividing that break up will stop the parents from neglecting to aid their children's education?
Less homework I'll go with.