Longer school year

[pantallica95]

This is a dumb idea. I was stuck in some regular schools for most of my life and I couldn't stay focused on the work. I hated doing it and I was on a borderline path to failure. I finally found out about a school in my area that took in kids who had flunked out of school or were permanently suspended and it's the best thing that ever happened to me.

At this school the days were shorter, and the school curriculum started later then the other public schools. I learned more in those last two years then in my entire time at school. The teachers were all top notch and the classes were all kept rather small. The teachers will not tolerate insolence in that school either. At the beginning of the year there is around 120 or so students in grades 11 and 12. By the end of the year there are somewhere around 60-70 remaining. Those who are gone either didn't care or caused trouble.

The best teacher I've ever had teaches there and I still go visit them from time to time. Nothing can replace a good school system, and no amount of extra time sitting behind a desk is going to fix America's flawed educational system.

Its stories like those that give me faith in the non-public education system.

On topic, it comes down to quality over quanity. cleverlymadeup shoulda put a "/thread" in his post.

The No Child Left Behind thing had good intentions but, as evidenced in one of asinann's posts, it poses more problems then it solves.

some teachers actually know their subject. my american history teacher in 8th grade knew his shit. never used his book or anything. he knew all the political issues, and told us both sides of all of them. we need more teachers like him. no one failed his class unless they just didnt give a shit. he loved what he did, and it showed. all the kids wanted to hang out with Mr. P.

Then, there are teachers like my 8th grade speech/7th grade health teacher who go off on stories and waste the whole period. he gave quizzes that were 100 points and ONE question. All or nothing. Needless to say, i failed one and it sunk my whole grade for the year. He fortunately was forced to stop teaching this year. but its teachers like that that need to be headed off early. he taught there for 20 fucking years. i dont know if gettin old and divorced did anything to his teaching, but if he taught like that his whole career my school district needs pissed upon. by me and my friends, specifically.

 

[stone0042]

Fuck no. Y'all should adopt the Italian style of school years.

From the 15th of September to the 6th of June, from 8:20 in the morning to 12:20 in the afternoon with three months holidays in the summer.

Aah, Viva Life!

Damn. I'm moving to Italy to live with some long lost cousin or something. Thats insane

 

[Gaderael]

i think they should have better education rather than longer school years.

Definitely agree with this. The quality in most schools in the states is pitiful. Extending the year will only push those kids who were on the edge of dropping out to just completely give up.

Quality before Quantity. VALVE before Activision, etc, etc

 

[Computer-Noob]

i think they should have better education rather than longer school years.

Basically this. If anyone thinks people will learn more just because they've been keep in longer they seriously underestimate teenagers ability to ignore their teachers.

Or their ability to just skip school, which is a much easier and preferable alternative to the average deliquant.

 

[Hctib]

In jolly old Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadia, the school I go to will be closed for the winter Olympics. Thats 2 weeks out. Then we have Winter vacation. Another 2 weeks. AND we have a week off for Easter.

Thats 5 weeks off without the pro-d days. And the answer?

16 minutes of school every day.

I really like my school.

 

[soren7550]

Having to only serve one more year in the NYC Public School System, I can safely say that making the day longer and shortening the holidays is pointless.

The fact is, you're not learning anything essential to use in the outside world. You're only learning how to take standardized test. That's all you'll really spend your time doing: preparing for and taking the god damn standardized tests. At my school, they cut the forensics class to make room for another science class that focuses on topics that will appear in the S.T.s. Everyone has to take two or three science classes, and all of the teachers are pissed because the state requirements prohibit them from teaching anything but what will appear on the tests.
Take my 11th grade history teacher. He wanted to really get into the Vietnam war, but because of the state requirements, we could only spend a week on some of the politics that happened in the vietnam era. (and the only politics we could cover were mainly the presidential debates.) He also wanted to teach us about the Clinton administration and what happened (like the First Battle of Mogadishu), but again, state requirements wouldn't allow him to do so.
But what I have and had to deal with for high school was no where nearly as ridiculous as what happened at I.S. 10. Two periods of math, two periods of english, and a science class or two. That's it, that's all you were allowed to do, day in, day out. The whole day was spent preparing for the S.T.s. The school even made it so that we only had a minuet to get to each class, lunch was 30 min. long (if you were lucky) and the school day went from 8-3:30 pm.

The last summer vacation didn't start until the very end of June and school started back up the first few days of September. Everyone joked that we were going to Hogwarts. (the Hogwarts semester starts Sept. 1.)

 

[Zamn]

I can't believe people in the UK think their summer holidays are too long. When I was in secondary school I had 13 weeks summer holidays a year and I had no idea how anybody survived with 6 weeks.

Now I'm in college and I have even less of an idea of how you'd survive. I have 24 weeks between my last lecture of the 08/09 year and my first of the 09/10 year, including no less than 17 weeks from my last exam. Really, 6 week summer holidays is already astonishingly short.

EDIT: Incidentally, there hasn't been shown to be any correlation between longer school years and increased academic performance.

 

[NaumWolf]

make it go as long as possible, we're already falling behind other countries.. or better yet do like they do in japan. make kids test into each new grade, will weed out the kids who want to fuck around and the ones that actully learn. then everyone will start paying attention so they can continue on.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Why teach them exceptionally if they are just going to work in blue-collar jobs? But, the intelligent are getting battered by the "No child left behind" which basically focuses on bring the lower up at the sacrifice of the more intelligent kids down from budget cuts to AP classes and such. But, if you show that you're exceptional in schoolwork you probably stand a far better chance of finding GOOD teachers. Such as last year where I was full of honor classes and all were great teachers, and every one of them knew their stuff. To further this I have applied to go into a special education curriculum for high school.. With focused and dedicated teachers..

 

[Radeonx]

Personally, since I'm in college, I wouldn't really care. My school day ends at around 2:00 now anyways, so, if the year went longer and I had shorter classes I'd be fine with that.

 

[G1eet]

Maybe not a whole year, but I think they should extended it in the UK most schools get 6 weeks off in the summer. I always thought that is far too long.

6 weeks is too long. It should be 3 weeks and the other 3 spread around.

No, it's not too long. Not at all.

i think they should have better education rather than longer school years.

Thank God someone had the balls to say this. I'm not going to ever come back to my excuse of a hometown because of the 1) corrupt bureaucracy, and 2) its shitty schooling. I want my kids to actually learn something from their schooling that stays with them.

I went to a Catholic private school until my 7th year, when I was almost immediately disappointed in the local public school system. It was only until this recent year of school that I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I think school days should be 6-7 hours long and should start around 9 am.

See, I've heard from so many reputable people that the average teenage mind isn't "awake" until around 8-9, and in my experience, that makes loads of sense. I wouldn't care about going later in the day, when I'd actually learn something and not think about sleep that I could be having.

 

[Twilight_guy]

1. Nothing is going to fix our educational system it sucks, period.
2. Longer school days would help to add time for teachers to teach but that doesnt solve the fact that there are 35 kids in a room.
3. Where is the money going to come from to fund the extra school time?
4. What did summer vacation ever do to you?

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

See, I'm in Australia and this is my school system. We go to school from 9-3 with about an hour and a half for recess and lunch. We have 3 seperate holidays of 3 weeks each (though most schools do 2)and we have 8 weeks over summer (christmas for us). I think its a good system. Its largely stress free and still leaves us with enough time to learn what we need to learn.

 

[crazy-j]

absolutely not!

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

My thoughts is that american schools are too easy,and the teens too lazy. Here we have 7 classes a day,some 14-16 subjects per school,and we dont choose the subjects,only which type of education we want. Also in american tests you got several answers and one is right,here like in many other places you dont have any answers you just need to know the right one,and sometimes write a few sentences about it. I think longer school days would be great for americans,education is valuable

Really? Wow thats really different from the system we use. I have 6 45 minute periods a day and 4 30 minute periods and 2 hours of sport on a thursday. From 9-10 we choose 2 of our subjects and in 11-12 we choose all of them.