The word isn't might, the word you were looking for is does.DVSAurion said:
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.
They still only attend 180 days a year, they just don't have a stupidly long break once a year.letsnoobtehpwns said:
I'm all for adding a day to the school week myself, but the teachers' unions are too powerful to allow it.
And for all you people freaking out over "better education" schools don't pay enough to teachers to get quality educators into schools. Maybe you should try passing a levy or two instead of complaining about taxes being too high and refuse to pay a few dollars a year to buy books written some time after world war two (my high school history book stopped in the middle of the Vietnam war when I attended in 1996.) Our best and brightest won't teach because you can make as much and in many cases more working in a mill without a degree and continuing educational requirements. Add in the fear that some day a kid might get mad at you for giving him an "F" on a test because he's a moron and go to the police saying you touched him in a dirty spot ruining your career (and it IS over if a kid says it, true or not.)
Most kids don't pay attention in school towards the end of the year because they're bored and the teachers for the most part don't care about anything other than getting standardized test scores up because that's the measure of teaching ability in the US now.
The entire educational system needs an overhaul in the US but parents and politicians won't pony up the cash. Hell, when cuts need to be made in the budgets, the FIRST thing cut is education when it should be the last.
And you need to stop worrying about stressing the kids out, they're gonna have to start working some day, and it's not like you get 10 weeks of vacation in any line of work I've ever heard of (teachers don't even really get it off, they have to go back to school and take some completely unrelated course because they have to have "well rounded" educations to keep their jobs.)
