Now, you're just being silly. She answered that already, just below the para you quoted...I dont agree with it, but its there - no need to be a boiler.
To encourage children to apply their learning to problem-solving and creating outside of the classroom is an issue Hong Kong has not solved. My experience with 5 children is the shorter holidays are shackled by the ever present need to return to school. Only in the longer summer holidays do children throw off those shackles and are truly able to focus on their world view.
I've done some further reading and I think it shows that the US system indeed extreme with their 3 month summer. For the HK system it looks like the suggestion would be to cut the length of the summer hol very slightly and redistribute it.. this may help a bit but it is a minor change aye best.
In countries like the UK the argument would be that the weather is normally pretty horrible. Having a longer holiday in summer gives a better chance of letting kids spend the limited number of warm days outside rather than in a non air conditioned classroom.
In HK I'd say the issue is the opposite. As a rule, HK people don't like the great outdoors. They prefer heading to a shopping mall. Maybe kids need to be encouraged to do something worthwhile in their holidays. A bit of learning loss isn't the end of the world if something else was gained in the process... but this doesn't amount to walking around langham place all day!
Going completely off tangent... In my experience the real educational killer these days is computer games. Some kids show addiction symptoms you'd associate more with a seasoned druggie than a young child. Lying, deceiving and rushing out substandard work so they can get back to the haven of their laptop. This sure isn't limited to rich kids either. In HK at least, the low income kids also have access to smartphones and computers.
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Last edited by justjoe86; 10-05-2014 at 11:23 AM.
There is no silver bullet to solve all issues but any small incremental change should be considered and built upon.
Having a long summer holiday during the most oppressive hot weather does not seem the best calendar planning for Hing Kong, especially for the poor who can't afford to run their air-cons all day.
Hong Kong would probably be better served with a 3-4 week break in October and a 3-4 week break in April and and just a week in July or August and short Christmas and CNY breaks. This would allow the kids holiday time when the weather is decent enough to get out and do stuff.