Practice is extremely important, but so are the in between times where ideas are consolidated and new connections formed. Yes, it is true that summer vacation has an adverse effect on poorer kids, but that is a function of their economic status and the environment that results from that. Schools should NOT be trying to make up for bad parenting or the shortcomings of a poor social system.

I also don’t think that the kids at the other end of the spectrum (the bright and curious ones) should be forced to sit through more school just because it helps some of the others. Unstructured free time is essential. It’s not about being free to do nothing; it’s about being free to think your own thoughts and pursue your own ideas and theories.

I think down time is total over rated. I also think anything that remotely resembles the concept of ‘lecturing’ is an absurd way to learn.

That having been said, knowing a single programming language is ALSO not enough.

I’d say for the past 20-30 years most Phd programs had a really loose definition of what mastery of a 2nd language was and is to the point that validation could be going to an office hour and ‘sorta’ conversing so someone wrote down: he/she is ok in language x, somewhere.

The reason for 2 language proficiency in the past was that often significant work was written in French or German or Russian. English and improvements in machine translation, and plain old fashioned translation and publication have greatly reduced that personal need. I’m sure there are fields where you still need the ability but I doubt if it is any modern technical field. Computer programming and statistical skills are probably as important if not more in many fields.

Also, going to the way back machine you couldn’t a get a PhD without Latin and Greek. I would not have a PhD if I needed Latin and Greek in spite of 4 years of Latin. Thank god some things change.