History of School Vacations

Throughout history school vacations or school holidays have been highly anticipated as a time to relax and to be outside. Students always look forward to them but how and why did they start?

Hundreds of years ago, many rich countries around the world had a form of school that somewhat resembles what we have today. Students learned languages and basic literature. The most important time of year was in August and September when the students spent their time harvesting for winter. The word holiday comes from Holy Day, which was when the Church in England said people could not work or study as they had to worship. 

The idea for holidays or vacations came from the ancient Romans and they took vacations to see friends and to do leisure activities. In America when schools started in the 17th century, the uprising middle and upper class families were often making excuses to escape the summer heat and the harsh winters to take their children to the countryside and relax.

In the 19th Century American schools decided to break up from school for a few weeks to let the richer families relax on vacation, which had a great impact on children's motivation for school. In the mid-1800s summer camps were created in the United States to give students an opportunity to learn and be creative in the outdoors.  

School vacations are now well established, but the number of days students get to holidays varies around the world. In the United States we attend school for 180 days a year. South Korea has the highest number of days at school with 220 days a year. In Australia students attend school for 200 days a year and in the UK students attend for 190 days a year.