Houston schools and offices should rearrange calendar (Humble: hotels, live)

[Snapper_head]

Schools let out in June, July, and August - just in time for the kids to enjoy 98-degree weather, with humidity that tops 110 degrees on the heat index.

There’s no law of nature saying that this has to be the case. In Brazil, the kids are out of school in December and January.

In Houston, school should take a break during March and April. That’s when most of our local festivals occur. Then, later in the scorching-hot months, our kids can sit in air-conditioned classrooms, when there’s not much else to do. They might even focus better with fewer distractions, and do better in school.

And for our office buildings, why do we work 8am to 5pm or similar hours during the summer? The morning is the only useful time of the Houston summer to be out and about. At 5pm, the temperature is ridiculously hot. It’s not exactly fun to mow the lawn or drop by the post office when the parking lot surface is 140 degrees and the parked cars are 130 degrees.

Why not work in our office buildings from 11am to 8pm during the Houston summer? That would give us a few hours in the morning to enjoy the mild temps and get stuff done. Then we could sit back in at our desks in air-conditioned buildings until it’s dark and time to go home.

[Vicman]

I know some districts have tried year-round school, though it's not popular with everybody.

[Fight Red Light]

Since Brazil is in South America, our June and July is like theirs what? December and January? Pick a better example.

[Texascrude]

We’ve never let the heat stop us from enjoying the summer. We do a lot of swimming and sweating, but that’s part of life here. I couldn’t imagine going into the office at 11:00. Most companies are global and it’d be ridiculous to tell everyone “Hey, it’s hot outside so I’m not going to be in until 11:00 for the next 4 months”.

I would prefer longer spring and fall breaks at the expense of a shorter summer break, but changing the schedule altogether like you suggested would cause a lot of ripple effects. State athletics and extra curricular activities would be a mess if one city basically sat out for a semester.

[Fight Red Light]

This suggestion missed the exact point why we chose these months to start with. When it's hot, people can't study/work very efficiently and schools have to spend lots of money on A/C for the kids if they stay there. So more money, less work.

[Snapper_head]

Originally Posted by Fight Red Light

Since Brazil is in South America, our June and July is like theirs what? December and January? Pick a better example.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_holiday

[Snapper_head]

Originally Posted by Texascrude

Most companies are global and it’d be ridiculous to tell everyone “Hey, it’s hot outside so I’m not going to be in until 11:00 for the next 4 months”.

That’s no different than the global companies based in India or Singapore or wherever that get on conference calls with Americans at strange times of the day. In fact, it would be easier for dealing with some global business partners if Houston were on a different schedule.

Originally Posted by Texascrude

State athletics and extra curricular activities would be a mess if one city basically sat out for a semester.

I knew the subject of school sports would come up! Sometimes it seems like it’s the primary focus of schools in Texas!

[Snapper_head]

Originally Posted by Fight Red Light

This suggestion missed the exact point why we chose these months to start with. When it's hot, people can't study/work very efficiently and schools have to spend lots of money on A/C for the kids if they stay there. So more money, less work.

And now it looks like we’re just guessing. So I’ll guess, too. My guess is that the school year was initially selected in Europe and in the Northeast United States, probably in the early 1800s...and Texas simply followed the lead when it joined the U.S.

I will also guess that the costs of air conditioning schools in Houston in summer are less than the costs of heating schools up north during the winter. In fact, I believe that much is known. So the monetary cost would actually be cheaper for schools up north if held breaks in the winter and were back in session in the summer. So certainly cost isn’t the primary motivation of schools as to when to hold breaks.

[elnina]

You probably should propose this to the Houston, or even Texas school board, OP - not to this forum. I don't think anyone here can actually make any difference.

It could make sense to move the main vacation to cooler months, at least in Southern States. There is no reason for all states to have school summer break at the same time.

[lhafer]

Humble ISD just changed their school calendar to include a week long break in the fall and the spring - and it caused so many uproars! Parents seem to forget that the state requires x number of hours for students to be in school - it doesn’t stipulate WHEN those hours should take place.

I am all for having a year - round type of school as I think it would benefit students and families a a lot more. Or at least have more breaks in the fall and spring, and have more class during summer months. Students wouldn’t have to spend so much time “reviewing” what they lost over the summer. Travel/vacations could be done cheaper when everyone isn’t having to do it at the same time (price of airfare and hotels are usually cheaper). Kids would have less opportunity to get bored and get into trouble.

When we lived in Europe, my kids had a break just about every 6-8 weeks or so - sometime extra long weekends, other times a week or more. The summer break was about 6 weeks. They went to school through the middle of July and started back up late August or the first week of September. Had a long break in October, Christmas break, long week in a February, and 2 weeks in late April/early May. I thought it was a great schedule for them in regards to learning. As soon as they started getting antsy about going to school - it would be break time. So they really enjoyed going to school and learning.

It probably also helped that the country we lived in had a minimum of 5 weeks vacation for everyone. The US really needs to work on their work/life balance as well. But I think this would take a LOT longer to fix.