Extending School Days/Year

[The_Iceflash]

Discuss the pros and cons of extending the school day and the school year.


Go!

[dvdjunkie]

It is a good topic but it also depends on where you live in the USA. Here in the midwest school starts the second week in August, and gets out for Summer Vacation the third week of May.

Other parts of the country are in school until mid-June and then go back the Tuesday after Labor Day.

So it all depends on where you live.

Also some schools don't allow in-service days off for students, and make the teachers do their in-service days on the weekends. Parent-Teacher conferences are generally held after school from about 5 pm to 8 pm, at least that's what they do here in Wichita.

We have allowed number of snow days before they extend the days a student is in school. This year we used up the snow days, but didn't have to extend the school year because we didn't have any more. We are allowed five snow-days a school year.

[Elladorine]

We already have 12 month schools in our area. We might be better off with regular track breaks rather than the summer vacations due to the weather.

[Disney's Divinity]

I think it’s unlikely that schools will be extending the number of days they attend, just because of the expense right now. I can see them extending school days and possibly--if the economy gets extremely bad--cutting down the number of days a week, but that’s about it. In the economic crisis we’re in now, few schools are well-off enough to extend.

Getting beyond the money incentive, which you know schools and states consider first, I honestly don't think it's great for children to go to school constantly year-round with no break. Sure, it might be better for summer to be limited to a month and a half, so students don't forget so much over those months, but they also need their breaks or they'll be exhausted with school.

[milojthatch]

I work at a high school, which I will admit has influenced my feeling on this. First off, so far as the current 9 month calender, if we keep with that, I think places with snow should change their school calenders so that "summer" break is in the winter months instead of summer. I bet that would make it easier for many of the teachers and students to get to class and work and also cut down of sick days.

So far as a year round schedule? I think it's a great idea. There could be a week to two weeks off for every two or three weeks on, or something like that. One of the biggest issues I think is that the first few months back in the traditional school year is getting the kids to re-learn what they forgot over the summer, which pushes them back. IF the breaks were more spread out though, I think it would be better for everyone. The kids would remember what they learned better, and as a result, more material could be covered, and people may be less stressed thanks to the more spread out breaks.

I think it is a good idea personally.

[ajmrowland]

Our schools start end of August/beginning of September and go til the end of May/beginning of June.

And as for the possibility of changing the calendar, our winters are really cold, but our summers are HOT. Everyone's sick, or they want to swim. That is, unless they're the crazy chicks that go to the pool but dont like getting wet. Sex appeal................whatever.

[Scarred4life]

Where I live, we go to school for 10 months and break from the end of June to the day after labour day. As a student, I feel this break is much needed. After the stress of the school year, I need two months to relax. And as for snow days, that's not really relevant to where I live, because as long as you can get our your door, you're going to school. (That is so not helping the stereotypes surrounding Canada, but it's true ) We only had one snow day this year, and none last year.

I can see why breaks during the year might be a good idea. BUT, when I went on March break this year, I was piled with homework. I only had four classes, but I ended up having to work on 5 projects, plus study for tests, plus my regular homework. My whole break was work. So the break wasn't really a break at all- I was more stressed out than I was when I was in school. If we got rid of summer vacation, I fear that would happen for all of our breaks, which would certainly not be ideal.

[Disney's Divinity]

I can see why breaks during the year might be a good idea. BUT, when I went on March break this year, I was piled with homework. I only had four classes, but I ended up having to work on 5 projects, plus study for tests, plus my regular homework. My whole break was work. So the break wasn't really a break at all- I was more stressed out than I was when I was in school. If we got rid of summer vacation, I fear that would happen for all of our breaks, which would certainly not be ideal.

I agree. I hate when teachers look at a student's time off as time for them to get more of their work done.

Students have breaks for a reason--so they can get a break from the stress of schoolwork. Having been in the high school this year (and nearly a teacher myself), I know that overloading students doesn't help them learn anything in the long run. Too many teachers have an addiction to coverage--where quantity becomes more important than quality--and they're only giving their students a poor education in the process.

[Scarred4life]

Students have breaks for a reason--so they can get a break from the stress of schoolwork. [...]

Exactly. And on a personal level, I love my summer vacations, because it's a great time for me to work on my writing. During the school year, it's difficult for me to produce good work, because I get really stressed out. So I really get alot done during the summer months.

[milojthatch]

I can see why breaks during the year might be a good idea. BUT, when I went on March break this year, I was piled with homework. I only had four classes, but I ended up having to work on 5 projects, plus study for tests, plus my regular homework. My whole break was work. So the break wasn't really a break at all- I was more stressed out than I was when I was in school. If we got rid of summer vacation, I fear that would happen for all of our breaks, which would certainly not be ideal.

I agree. I hate when teachers look at a student's time off as time for them to get more of their work done.

Students have breaks for a reason--so they can get a break from the stress of schoolwork. Having been in the high school this year (and nearly a teacher myself), I know that overloading students doesn't help them learn anything in the long run. Too many teachers have an addiction to coverage--where quantity becomes more important than quality--and they're only giving their students a poor education in the process.

Your missing something though. The breaks may be too long and that work is there for a reason. I used to think like you do, really, I did. But actually being employed at a school is something of an eye opener. Let's get realistic here for a second. The politicians and general public are very determined to see results. Other countries are kicking our trash right now education wise. A LOT of pressure is put on teachers and they are expected to teach students the material handed to them to teach from day one of school. Problem is, come day one of school, most students have forgot just about everything they learned last year. Let's be fair, three months is a long time to remember facts when you haven't looked at them in any of that time.

So, teachers have to dedicate at least the first month or two to re-teaching what was taught last year. This makes them grumpy becuase people in Washington, the state level and the media as well as the general public have expectations that they feel are not being met, it makes students grumpy becuase in an attempt to "catch up" to what was expect to be covered, teacher at some point in the year start rushing past material and piling on the work as well they feel the pressure of all the work, and lastly it makes parents grumpy becuase on one hand, they feel their kids have too much work and yet on the other hand, feel the teachers are not doing a good job becuase tehir kid seems behind.

Basically, if students actually spent time in the summer going over things their teachers give them to do, and maybe even more then that, and if parents actually spent time working with their kids over summer, it would get rid of a lot of stress. Even better yet, if that three month break was broken up and more evenly divided throughout the school year, it would get rid of even more stress and I bet, kids may learn more. As for how teachers teach, that is another matter I think, but the question was about the school year, not methods in teaching in that time period.

[Disney's Divinity]

First of all, I've learned all about what needs to be taught in the classroom from my degree program as well as just reading the Standard Course of Study for my state, and I've both watched and helped others implement it for the past year. I'm hardly naive on the subject.

I know why the work given over breaks is there. That doesn't change the fact that it takes away the point of what Easter and Summer Break were given for. What politicians want is a huge reason why there haven't been results. Other countries' education systems are often very different from the US, and if we really wanted to catch up we would follow their examples.

I already agreed that the breaks would be better spread out over time, mostly because that would allow students to have their breaks and still generally remember what they had been going over prior to that month-break. (Although about that work-over-break part, I was mostly talking about work given over the one/two-week Easter Break, since students are rarely given work over the summer months. At least not where I live.)

As for how teachers teach, that is another matter I think, but the question was about the school year, not methods in teaching in that time period.

What I suggested had nothing to do with the "methods" used to teach so much as what is assigned for them to teach by people who aren't a part of the education system.

Some teachers have a more difficult job than others. Math teachers, for example, have a very strict curriculum. They even have a day-by-day list of where they should be and what they should be teaching each day of the school year, which doesn't at all account for student needs. Many teachers, however--like English teachers--have a list of curriculum, without those kind of huge restrictions, thankfully.