Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was doing some research about the topic of year around school and saw that it was being discussed for almost 30 years. The articles from a long time ago said that schools would all be year around by 1990. Well it is 2008 and while there are some year around schools and the summer break is shorter the average school year is still 9 1/2 months.
What happened to the dream of year around school and would you support it?
In our area it is cost prohibitive since many schools are not air conditioned and to retrofit them, pay salaries for year round and upkeep costs of the buildings was just too expensive.
In some areas, there is year-round school. I know there are some in southwest Florida, but not all schools in one district. We homeschool year round, for the most part, and I'd think that benefits for schooled kids would include not forgetting what they learned all year, and also working parents would not have to scramble for daycare in the summer.
I live in NC and my daughter is in a year around school and she loves it. She goes to classes for 45 school days then has a 15 school day break. Her school consists of four "tracks". There are always three tracks in school and one is tracked out. Basically, the school is open year around. Granted, she doesn't have the entire summer off but, with her schedule which is track one, she does have the entire months of March, June, Sept, and Dec off when other kids are in school. The only problem I see with year around school is that there are no year around high school. She'll have to switch to traditional calendar once she starts 9th grade.
In our area it is cost prohibitive since many schools are not air conditioned and to retrofit them, pay salaries for year round and upkeep costs of the buildings was just too expensive.
This is the problem in many areas.
Ten years ago we actually got to vote if we wanted to have year round school and it was overwhelmingly defeated. Most people cited childcare issues, summer jobs, conflicting schedules, and tradition as their major reasons for voting against it.
Money concerns aside, I don't like the idea of year-round school. There are a lot of things in this world to learn and not everything can be taught in a classroom situation. Even if a kid just "plays" during the summer, they are learning the value of downtime. It is not necessary to be busy busy busy every waking moment.
That being said, I agree the time spent in the classroom needs to be spent more productively. One way that can happen is by having smaller classes. I think the model of 22 to 25 kids in one room is often counter-productive. I'd prefer to see 10 to 12 max. But that's fodder for a different thread .
Year round works good for systems that are overcrowded. Summers were great, but I was so bummed when I had to work my first summer!!
I think it would be kind of cool to go for 45 days and then have 15 off. Then you would have days off all year and be able to experience different things at different times of the year. It can get tricky if you have multiple children all on different tracks, though.
Teachers at my daughter's school go on the same track as they teach so they would also be on the 45 days on and 15 days off. In the end, they get pretty much the same time off.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
