Grex Parenting Conference

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Grex Parenting Item 47: Year-round schooling pros or cons
Entered by kimba on Sat May 28 08:02:36 UTC 1994:

I recently noticed an article in one of those parenting magazines while waiting
in the checkout lane, about the negative aspects of year-round schooling.  Did
anyone else see this?  Is anyone else familiar with this concept?  What is 
your opinions of year-round schools?  

Personally, I attended year-round elementary school and found it very positive.
So I'm curious as to what others think.

7 responses total.

#1 of 7 by kami on Sat May 28 16:03:28 1994:

Certainly precludes internships or long trips.  Breeds resentment among boyh
(er, both) teachers and students.  Current buildings are not designed for it.
On the other hand, except for the first, these are all spurious reasons.

I'd really like to see a system in which kids are able to participate in ap
apprenticeships or internships according to their interests, then bring it
back to the classroom and coordinate their subject areas with those special
topics.  I realize that's asking a lot, but I've also seen some really neat
things done by talented teachers supported by good administrators.

#2 of 7 by aaron on Sat May 28 16:09:45 1994:

I don't see that internships are precluded -- if Commie High can give
students credit for working, why couldn't a "normal" school do the same
thing.  Simply create the possibility for a student to earn a half-year
of credit for work outside of the school.

Resentment between teachers and students?  Boy -- that never happens in
the current system.  :*

Buildings aren't designed for it?  From what I have seen, high schools
are overbuilt -- they include facilities for which there is little need,
and which sit idle during most of the regular school year (let alone
the summer).

#3 of 7 by popcorn on Sat May 28 17:33:52 1994:

This response has been erased.

#4 of 7 by davel on Sun May 29 02:04:26 1994:

Aaron is right - but it requires more complex scheduling than most schools
are now prepared to do.  (Internships as now conceived often are thought
of as relating to one subject area; these would however preclude normal
class work in other subjects, in many cases.)

Valerie, in many areas most schools are air-conditioned, I think; Michigan's
cooling season is shorter than average.  And in any case, I'm not sure that
you're right even in Michigan for schools built since the early 1960s or
so.  There are too many things that *do* happen in schools during the
summer for a simple no-AC-needed rule to be attractive.

Proposals I've seen for year-round schooling have mostly not proposed
increasing the number of school days per year (or not much), but rather
redistributing it somehow - either by having 1/4 of the students on an
extended vacation at any given time, or by having more numerous shorter
vacations.  I don't see any educational advantage to the former (only
more efficient facility use).  The latter type is intended at least partially
to avoid the big chance to forget a whole year's work in 3 months, but
doesn't add any efficiency in facility use or anything.  Either will present
problems to parents with kids in more than one school or under more than
one schedule.

#5 of 7 by popcorn on Sun May 29 05:49:33 1994:

This response has been erased.

#6 of 7 by kimba on Sun May 29 18:01:38 1994:

First of all I went to year-round school in Lapeer, Michigan.  The premise
was not to create tension or resentment...in fact it was quite the opposite.
Our school year had 1 EXTRA day of vacation time than the "normal" schools
in fact.  Our school year was called 45-15.  45 days of school, then 15 off.
(or 9 weeks/3 weeks).  Not only were families able to vacation through-out the
year (rather than just the HOT summers), students didn't get bored with school
because we had breaks before long, and students didn't forget things over the
summer and then have to waste the first month or two of the fall reaquinting
themselves with the material lost.  In fact when I moved in the middle of 6th
grade to a "normal" school in Flint, I was already doing what the 8th graders
were doing.  In the summer we started school a little earlier, thus we got out
earearlier and still had time to play until late with friends who didn't go to
year-round school.  And I think it was psychologically nice for students since
you didn't have to be separated all summer from close friends at school that
may not have lived near you.

#7 of 7 by scg on Thu Jul 7 05:22:41 1994:

What I would like to see far more than a manditory year round schedule
would be an optional summer term.  Students could then choose to have a
lighter course load all year or a heaver course load with a long vacation.
I'm not sure which I would choose, but I imagine it might varry from year
to year.  I'm certainly doing enough school like stuff now even though
school isn't in session.

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