Longer school year

[Yubadias]

In the US there's 12 weeks Summer, 2 weeks winter, 1 week Thanksgiving, 2 days Halloween, 1 weeks Spring and some 10 professional growth days. In total, the school year is 180 days (in California), and a lot of those days are spent watching movies and celebrating that there's a break. In some Asian and European (actually MOST), the school years exceed 200, 250 and even 300 days. I think a combination of year-round school years and stronger education would get America up and running.

 

[Agayek]

Here in America there is a debate brewing as to whether we should have longer school days and also a longer school year. I know many other countries already do year round school, and I think this topic should be discussed more in Congress, the media, etc.




So what are your thoughts? I feel that we should have longer school years and days, or at least try it out in a few schools and see if test scores improve before we make it like that in all schools.

The only reason summer holidays exist was for the students to be able to help around the farm over the summer, so I'd back year round school schedules. One or the other though, either year round schedule with no massive weeks-long break, or each school day last til 5ish, with the same summer break we use nowadays.

 

[Agayek]

In the US there's 12 weeks Summer, 2 weeks winter, 1 week Thanksgiving, 2 days Halloween, 1 weeks Spring and some 10 professional growth days. In total, the school year is 180 days (in California), and a lot of those days are spent watching movies and celebrating that there's a break. In some Asian and European (actually MOST), the school years exceed 200, 250 and even 300 days. I think a combination of year-round school years and stronger education would get America up and running.

No amount of actual school will fix the problems inherent in America today. Rather, forcing people to think, to analyze, critique and apply logical thought, is what we require.

 

[Keela]

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

We get from early June to mid-August.

6 weeks summer holiday is what we have in the UK. How long is the holdiay for kids in the US?

Early June to mid-August.

I have probably forgotten most of what I learned last year, and I still have a few weeks to go. My first few weeks of high school will be SHIT.

 

[Keela]

could some explain to me the entire school year? how isit longer? and how long the days are?

Sorry but are you implying you do not understand what a school year is or you want to know the parameters of the US school year?

lol see i'm in the U.K. just wonderingwhat is different to the school year the only thing i know about is that they have a longer summer holiday. but thats it how does it compare to the U.K.

We get what I consider to be some solid but a bit short week-or-so breaks for winter, spring, and Thanksgiving (fall). There are also a few day-long breaks for small holidays like Martin Luther King Jr Day, President's Day, etc. Followed by a 10-week long forget-everything-you-learned break. God bless America!

Edit: Traditionally, school starts in September and ends in June, but it changes every year. We don't get, like, 200 days of school and 165 days of break, we're always off by a few days.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I've never heard any stereotype that italian people are badly educated, so maybe there's something in shorter days...

However, I'd have gladly done an extra 2 hours a day if it had meant no homework.

I don't come home from work, then log on to my PC do give an extra 2 hours work helping customers thru our website, so I don't see what homework does to help kids, it isn't training them for later life, just screwing their down time.

I'm personally in favour of uniforms however, as it means less bullying of the poorer kids because they're not wearing name branded clothing, there was enough of that just over trainers/sneakers at my school.

 

[Keela]

I get up around 7:30. I have lived in my house for over a year, and I'm always so tired until 5th (out of 7) period. I could never tell you how to get to my middle school from my house.

 

[Keela]

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.

This shows that people are different. I have always been a morning person, so 9 am is good for me. But I think we can all agree that 8 am is too early. For me, it's pretty hard to concentrate during day time and I would rather do something else then.

True, true. I can wake up "early" on the weekends and during vacation, say 8-9 am, but at least I don't have to worry about the rat race.

I get up around 7:30. I have lived in my house for over a year, and I'm always so tired until 5th (out of 7) period. I could never tell you how to get to my middle school from my house.

Sorry for double post, quote wouldn't work.

 

[monkey_man]

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

YOU WHAT ?!?! 6 weeks is waaay to short to bring myself in a state of obeyance
! i think 2 weeks of school would be enough for me ...(wonder if my brain will function if that would ever happen)

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

I've never heard any stereotype that italian people are badly educated, so maybe there's something in shorter days...

However, I'd have gladly done an extra 2 hours a day if it had meant no homework.

I don't come home from work, then log on to my PC do give an extra 2 hours work helping customers thru our website, so I don't see what homework does to help kids, it isn't training them for later life, just screwing their down time.

I'm personally in favour of uniforms however, as it means less bullying of the poorer kids because they're not wearing name branded clothing, there was enough of that just over trainers/sneakers at my school.

Homework is their way ofs aying, "I didn't have enough class time to fully educate you in this manner," or.. "I wish to check how well you understood the lesson"

Dammit, I would take a test everyday on the things that happened in class if it meant that I didn't have my grade pulled down my disturbing non-lacking backbone.

 

[Unknower]

Bad, bad, bad idea.

Finland has something like 10 week summer holiday + 2 week Christmas holiday + some weeks. Here's the results of the 2006 PISA survey [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PISA_(student_assessment)#2006_survey] Finland was in the top countries with Taiwan and South Korea + Hong Kong*. I'm pretty sure the students in other top countries spend a lot more time in school than in Finland. So: longer school year doesn't mean better results.

*Not a country.

EDIT: Gaah, I pressed "Post" accidentally.

 

[londelen]

Test scores aren't everything. They do not accurately represent the learning and ability of students.

 

[Trivun]

Hah, it doesn't matter for me because I'm at university. Although my brother's school used to finish at about 2.00pm and started around 8.30am, with barely any breaks. My old school also started at 9.00am and finished 4.00pm, but in Sixth Form we were allowed to leave as early as 2.20pm if we'd finished lessons for that day. Or stay in and read in the library. Pretty good, actually

 

[Clashero]

I've been to both an Argentine private school and an American public school, and I can tell you that a longer school year is not the solution. You need better education, because the current system is shite. Everything is made simpler, the teachers go at the pace of the slowest student, the tests are a joke (10 multiple choice questions? Please), and the reading lists are ridiculous (we read 4 books in one year)

 

[mike1921]

Here in America there is a debate brewing as to whether we should have longer school days and also a longer school year. I know many other countries already do year round school, and I think this topic should be discussed more in Congress, the media, etc.




So what are your thoughts? I feel that we should have longer school years and days, or at least try it out in a few schools and see if test scores improve before we make it like that in all schools.

Hell no, school is easy as hell already and there's no need to inflate it more, we should be working on makeing those 6 hours a day for 9 months a year more efficient. How about not doing anymore busy work so you're actually learning more often. I Really, I had a tutor when I was out of school, I was able to get a week's worth of work (for two classes... so that would by about 7 hours total) done in an hour. And, while I am faster at learning than most kids, and a good amount of time probably gets cut out by you only waiting if you have a question, but I doubt it would be completely unreasonable to get it to be half a week's worth of. How about makeing science an elective mixed in with any other unecisary class because almost no one uses information they gained in science in their daily life? That way important classes (Math, Language, that class in my school that is just math but concentrated on word problems) get more time.

I think school days should be 6-7 hours long and should start around 9 am. Here in Finland it's pretty much that way, except that school mostly begins at 8, which is a bad thing, because it makes everyone in the building unable to work for a few hours. Don't know how long your days are over where you live, but that's just my idea of an ideal school day.

The school year could be around the year, as long as there are a breaks for a couple every now and then. We have a ten week long summmer holiday and that is almost a bit too long. Having an almost continuous year would probably help you keep focused on subjects, a break too long might actually make you forget what you've learnt, making revision necessary to waste good learning time.

The word isn't might, the word you were looking for is does.
Studies have shown that after 3 weeks you start to forget information, meaning the first month of school is a reteaching of last years materials.

Some of the local schools do "year round" schooling, they take a month off in December instead of 2 weeks, and 4 weeks in summer instead of 10. They get the rest of their summer break spread out through the year and those schools seem to score better on tests than the rest of the district. Those schools are in the worst neighborhoods in town meaning that it isn't entirely funding that kills schools in poor neighborhoods, it's also teaching styles.

Parents in the US hate year round schools though, because they don't want to have to find people to watch their kids. Schools in the US really aren't much more than government funded daycare centers for kids over 6.

7 hours of torture for 180 days a year is enough.

They still only attend 180 days a year, they just don't have a stupidly long break once a year.

I wish other professions let you do that...Move a lot of my holidays, all my personal days, and any leftover sick days, into one big chunk. I really hate weekends because for 1/2 of the time you can't enjoy yourself because you know you're going to school the next day. The idea of working like my dad (6 day work week) sounds absolutely terrible to me and I'd honestly have a 7 day work week .

Making a longer school year wouldn't do anything except cause more stress. They could already be teaching what they teach in one day in about 3 hours if they had to. I think they should just work on improving the education instead of trying to make kids sit in a classroom for a the whole year.

They could if they didn't have to make sure every moron in class at least gets the basics of what was being taught. As it is, thanks to the no child left behind act, even the special kids have to be able to pass those tests. That means inclusion. Inclusion means those special kids have to be put in normal classes to be taught and retaught at the expense and to the detriment of the other students that are capable of understanding the materials. That's why teachers spend two weeks telling you the same thing over and over and over ad nauseum. That's why you have to take english every year and get taught every year what nouns and verbs are. It's not a teachers' idea, they're just as tired of doing it as the kids are of hearing it. Those things come down from on high, from a "C" average student that wouldn't have gotten into a community college if his daddy didn't have a shit ton of money.

In my school there are 4 levels of classes and that doesn't happen , yet we still learn and re-learn retarded shit.

Anyway, year-around schooling and uniforms--bring 'em on. I think it would be beneficial.

How the hell are uniforms beneficial?

PS: also, I think something that everyone would enjoy that wouldn't be as controversial that is a better use of the money than an extra 3 months in school, get air conditioners everywhere. I can't do work well if I'm hot and sweaty.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

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!

OO OOOOOOOO I agree we should do that

 

[ace_of_something]

I live in a rural state so they will never do that here. Kids actually DO help bring in the crops for the harvest in the summer.

Besides my spouse is a teacher and I love it when she has the summer off cuz i have to do almost NO housework (save for all the yard work but I still am coming out ahead).