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Bear with me. I'm a fairly new first time parent who won't even be looking at schools for another three years or so, but this is a burning question.
I notice that many people are adamantly against year round schools, and I'm trying to figure out the various and sundry pros and cons of either choice before my daughter is old enough to go to school. For some reason, I seem to think that year round schools might be more beneficial academically. Every year when I returned to school in August, we all seemed to forget our foreign language and math skills. In fact, any class where the learning was iterative went down the tubes and we had to spend the entire first month or so reviewing what we did the previous year. In history, the teachers would always start way back to the American Revolution all over again! I feel like I wasted so much time.
Additionally, most kids were bored silly by the end of the first month of the summer.
As a parent, I find the idea of taking vacations during "off" times of the year to avoid crowds pretty compelling. There are certain things families at traditional schools can't do, such as see the fall foliage in Vermont, or take in certain spring festivals. While 80% of the rest of the school aged world is stuck in school, I'd love to take my family to a less crowded Smoky Mountains, for example.
So, I'm really interested in what the possible disadvantages of a year-round school are, since none really come to mind. Is it finding day care during the weird intersessions?
IdaClaire - Did you jump into my head and write my thoughts down? Those are the exact reasons that we are year-round. Various vacations throughout the year, no catch up after months off and a great scehdule. I have found more than enough track out programs available so I can't see that after school care is an issue. (For me) Unfortunately, I can't answer for the reasons it is not liked - WE LOVE IT!
I'm not a parent yet, but will be someday. Anyway I think the big reason people are against it is because of the fact that if you have more than 1 child, your children could be on different tracks. I'm all for year-round schools, but 2 kids of different tracks? The county needs to make sure that families stay on the same track and I think there would be less issues.
Of course you'll still have those parents that want 12 straight weeks off for some odd reason.
I think the idea of year-round school and the continuing of the education process without prolonged breaks sounds like it may be a good idea, but on a personal level, I need a traditional year, becasue I have shared custody of my 9-year-old daugther and and a year-round schedule just doesnt work for us.
I'm not a parent yet, but will be someday. Anyway I think the big reason people are against it is because of the fact that if you have more than 1 child, your children could be on different tracks. I'm all for year-round schools, but 2 kids of different tracks? The county needs to make sure that families stay on the same track and I think there would be less issues.
Of course you'll still have those parents that want 12 straight weeks off for some odd reason.
I'm not sure , but I think I read somewhere on the forum that siblings are kept on the same track. Anyway, I think that everyone has their different feelings and reasoning why year-round schools may or may not be for them and their families, I can only share what my personal thoughts are and why we are leaning towards the traditional method. If I had a child, such as yourself, who would be starting the school process from the beginning, year round may work for us. I have a 3rd and 5th grader, presently up in NJ in a traditional school setting, and we are trying to relocate to NC as soon as our house sells. I think it would be hard enough with all the changes, moving out of state, new schools, etc, and then to add to it, tell them they will be in school year round! I just thought it would be too overwelming for them...but thats me, from others on the forum it works very well for them and their kids. Along with those reasons, my kids schools are presently a hop, skip, and a jump from our home, and presently, in Wake county, distance to schools can be quite a bit further from what I understand. Jeannie
Siblings stay on the same track from what I understand. Year round may not be for everyone that is why there are options in wake county, you can apply to the traditional school that is in your base area, you can apply to charter schools and magnet schools, all are free of charge to attend.
From what I have seen once kids are "into" school they don't seem to notice the varied breaks. Tracks 1 and 4 end up with a "summer" break as track one is out the last three weeks of june and first week of july (the entire school is closed the first week of july) and track four has off the first week of july and is tracked out the last three weeks of the month. I have actually seen more kids get bored the last week of their track out than anything.
I think the difficulty would come if you have a child in elementary that is year round and a child in middle that is traditional. Not as many middle schools are year round.......
And none of the high schools are year round. So if you have one in HS and one in MS and one in elementary.....
Well it's easy to see why YR doesn't work for me!
Yikes! I guess so!
Okay, so all the reasons people are objecting so far make total sense to me. It sounds like the schedules just don't work for some parents. I wasn't sure if some of the objections were curriculum-based, and from the point of view of the curriculum alone, I just was struggling to see any academic (or vacation) disadvantages to YR.
It would make sense to have YR options for elementary, middle and high schools! I don't understand why Wake County would not offer YR at the high school level.
I talked to a teacher this morning and he mentioned that some teachers prefer to work at traditional schools because they rely on summer income from other jobs and would have a difficult time finding work during intersessions.
Still, I am hoping that Chapel Hill schools offer YR options by the time my daughter is old enough to start kindergarten.
...I think the big reason people are against it is because of the fact that if you have more than 1 child, your children could be on different tracks. ....
At least where we are, all your kids ARE put on the same track unless you request otherwise, BUT once you have 1 in high school (all HS's are traditional schedule) you are stuck with 2 schedules.
IMHO, they should put the traditionals on the modified traditional schedule that some schools use- 5 weeks or so for summer & Christmas breaks, less 3 day weekends... then you would be able to coordinate with the year round schedules better, too.
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