Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New profile posts
Latest activity
Internet Search
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
A longer school day and school on Saturday??? Anyone hear about this?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="muttmeister" data-source="post: 309913" data-attributes="member: 135"><p>I think the key words here are "push through." The fact is that this was a suggestion, although not a new one. These ideas have been around for quite a few years. Some individual school districts have implemented some of these ideas with varying degrees of success. </p><p>My step-granddaughter (3rd grade) has the option of a regular calendar or year round school and she chose the year round option and loves it. In fact, it does not include many more days than the regular option; they get extended breaks 4 times a year. As a teacher I can certainly see the advantage of this as kids do forget a lot over the long summer break and usually you spend the first month and a half reviewing material from the previous year.</p><p>As far as a longer day goes, I'm not so sure. Especially for the younger students, but even for the older ones, they are pretty well fried by the end of the day. Of course, around here a lot of kids get on the school bus before 7 (even little kids) in order to get where they're going by the time school starts around 8 and some of them don't make it off the bus till after 5. Schools around here regularly schedule athletic practices before school at 6 A.M. and others last till past 7 P.M. Our kids are involved in a lot more sports and other such activities than kids in other countries. There are only 24 hours in a day and you can't expand on that so something would have to give.</p><p>I think the Saturday thing was a suggestion for kids who need extra help or for those who have no place to go and nobody to watch them on Saturdays. I'm not sure that is the schools' job but we have a habit in this country of adding to the schools' responsibility anything that parents won't/can't/don't do. That's one reason there is so little time left to teach.</p><p>As far as our being so behind other countries it has been proven time and time again that that is a false argument. When you're talking about SAT/ACT testing and the like, we test about 90% of our kids as ALL kids are supposed to meet the same standards. In other countries, differentiation starts early and only the top 20-30% of their kids even take those tests. So we are comparing apples and oranges. As far as I'm concerned, we are cheating the gifted kids by not providing an appropriate education for them; we are cheating the below-average kids by insisting they complete an education that is totally inappropriate for them; we are cheating the average kids because we spend so much time coping with the other two ends that nobody is getting what they need.</p><p>Oops - I'm finding myself on my soapbox again; I will get off and let the rest of you have a say.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="muttmeister, post: 309913, member: 135"] I think the key words here are "push through." The fact is that this was a suggestion, although not a new one. These ideas have been around for quite a few years. Some individual school districts have implemented some of these ideas with varying degrees of success. My step-granddaughter (3rd grade) has the option of a regular calendar or year round school and she chose the year round option and loves it. In fact, it does not include many more days than the regular option; they get extended breaks 4 times a year. As a teacher I can certainly see the advantage of this as kids do forget a lot over the long summer break and usually you spend the first month and a half reviewing material from the previous year. As far as a longer day goes, I'm not so sure. Especially for the younger students, but even for the older ones, they are pretty well fried by the end of the day. Of course, around here a lot of kids get on the school bus before 7 (even little kids) in order to get where they're going by the time school starts around 8 and some of them don't make it off the bus till after 5. Schools around here regularly schedule athletic practices before school at 6 A.M. and others last till past 7 P.M. Our kids are involved in a lot more sports and other such activities than kids in other countries. There are only 24 hours in a day and you can't expand on that so something would have to give. I think the Saturday thing was a suggestion for kids who need extra help or for those who have no place to go and nobody to watch them on Saturdays. I'm not sure that is the schools' job but we have a habit in this country of adding to the schools' responsibility anything that parents won't/can't/don't do. That's one reason there is so little time left to teach. As far as our being so behind other countries it has been proven time and time again that that is a false argument. When you're talking about SAT/ACT testing and the like, we test about 90% of our kids as ALL kids are supposed to meet the same standards. In other countries, differentiation starts early and only the top 20-30% of their kids even take those tests. So we are comparing apples and oranges. As far as I'm concerned, we are cheating the gifted kids by not providing an appropriate education for them; we are cheating the below-average kids by insisting they complete an education that is totally inappropriate for them; we are cheating the average kids because we spend so much time coping with the other two ends that nobody is getting what they need. Oops - I'm finding myself on my soapbox again; I will get off and let the rest of you have a say. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
The Watercooler
A longer school day and school on Saturday??? Anyone hear about this?
Top