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We have a traditional calendar of 180 instructional days, with school days lasting 6.5 hours. School started in early August and ends the third week of May.
Studies do not show that the year-round calendar improves student learning, and any time it is brought up by school boards in my county, it is voted down.
Here the instructional school day is not 6 hours a day but rather 7 1/2
So in a UK school there are 1140 school hours, and in the US there are 1342 hours. Appears we have a longer school year after all.
Yes sorry I wasn't being specific about the number of hours in the day. Are your kids in public elementary school? If so you are getting a better deal, because my two older kids (grades 3 and 5) are actually doing the same length day in California as they were in the UK: 6 hours 25 mins.
Here they do from 8.35am - 3pm.
In the UK they were doing 8.50am - 3.25pm (this is what I meant by the school day being roughly the same)
In fact my daughter who is in grade 2 is only doing 5 hrs 10 mins here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Our kids go 176, I believe.
Elementary School: 6 1/2 hrs/day
Middle School: 6hr, 50 min
High School 7 1/2 hrs
Thanks. Do you think these hours are fairly standard throughout the US?
Here in California, my kids had a roughly 10 week summer break which I wondered how on earth we were going to fill, but was surprised at how fast it went, and it was nice spending the time with the kids. (My kids thought all their birthdays had come at once!! They were in heaven!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by tgbwc
We used to have this type of modified calendar at some of our schools, but they all went back to traditional calendars due to budget cuts a couple of years ago. (The district preferred the term "modified calendar" as one that was more accurate than "year round".) Many teachers, myself included, would like to go to this type of schedule.
We have 183 student days. I think our student day of 6 hours and 40 minutes is long enough.
As a teacher, what was it you preferred about the modified calendar? I was a teacher back in the UK before I had kids. I'd have loved a 10 week break myself!! 6 weeks used to go very fast I remember!
Summer break dates back to when 70-some percent of our nation's economy was based on agriculture and kids were expected to help out on the family farm. The idea eventually spread to urban schools as a means of preventing "overstimulation" of the students.
Hi there,
I moved to California from the UK about a year ago. I have 3 kids all at public elementary school here.
Having completed a school year and long summer break, it felt to me that the kids were always off school compared to back home, however on investigation, I have found that actually in my case its only 11 days different. I guess it just feels a lot more due to the long summer break here.
In the UK there is a standard of 190 instructional days.
In the US I understand it varies from state to state. My kids have 179 instructional days at their school here.
A friend of mine said that historically the long summer break was because adults felt that kids should be kids and be allowed to enjoy their childhood.
I just wondered how others feel about the amount of free time kids have in the US and in other countries. I'd be interested to get some other perspectives on this.
I think kids have too much free time. I think kids benefit from structure. I'd love to see, at least, three more weeks of school, and breaks scattered throughout the year instead of concentrated in the summer. I'm in the minority though so it will never happen.
Summer break dates back to when 70-some percent of our nation's economy was based on agriculture and kids were expected to help out on the family farm. The idea eventually spread to urban schools as a means of preventing "overstimulation" of the students.
Actually no. The time the farm needs kids to work is planting season (May) and harvesting season (September and October). The summer off has nothing to do with agriculture. In areas that had an agrarian calendar, kids went to school in June, July and August. They're just not needed at home to watch the crops grow. They still had three months off. They were just May, September and October. It was when we no longer needed the kids on the farm that the months off were moved to June, July and August. I don't know why but if I had to hazard a guess it would be that schools were not air conditioned but neither were homes back then so that's just a guess.
Only because it gave us a block of time to work another job. As a teacher and parent, I'd like to see the breaks spread throughout the year but that will take away my ability to earn extra income in the summer. That will kill ever going to year round schools. NO one is going to compensate us for the time we can no longer work.
We have a traditional calendar of 180 instructional days, with school days lasting 6.5 hours. School started in early August and ends the third week of May.
Studies do not show that the year-round calendar improves student learning, and any time it is brought up by school boards in my county, it is voted down.
Yup. The general public wants schools to take the summer off. THAT is why we have the summers off. It doesn't matter what the studies say. John Q. Public knows better.
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