School on Aug. 8 ? Are they insane? (Dave Barry)

Maimi Herald ^ | Aug. 04, 2005 | DAVE BARRY

[Future Snake Eater]

Ok, fine. Let's just cut out summer break all together and make kids hate school even more than they do already. Happy now?

lol...yeah, that'll do fine.

[SALChamps03]

There is no such thing as "year-round school." It's 180 days regardless of when it starts and ends.

[SALChamps03]

This early start date is because the teachers are INCOMPETENT to teach children. It is also done by the only union of significance in FL to try and anger mom and dad.

Bingo, you hit that nail on the head with a jack hammer.

Sounds more like an opinion void of any documented facts to me.

[SALChamps03]

Your gubbmint skools keeping their noses out of homeschoolers business.

Oh of course, nobody would ever dare claim to homeschool when all they were actually doing is letting the child watch TV all day. Nope, couldn't happen.

[mvpel]

I'm not convinced that kids need 12 years of school either.

They need 12 years because it takes the unionized government-run school systems that long to teach them to read and write rudimentary sentences and how to multiply with a calculator.

[Sonny M]

Sounds more like an opinion void of any documented facts to me.

I know to many teachers who would laugh and disagree.

[moog]

Kids in CA are starting on Aug 10th this year. The answer to the question of why is money. The simple truth is that schools get fed money for every day that a child is in attendance. Start earlier and you have more money at the end of the school year. In this area of CA, the northeastern part, in the mountains, the reason given for the early starts are snow days. While there are at least two days worth of closures of schools here every year for snow days, I have yet to see a year when we were shut down for two weeks for snow, so that reason falls flat. MONEY is the real reason, with control thrown in as a close second. Homeschool and push for vouchers

We've got everybody beat here. WE START SCHOOL IN JULY!!! I've been teaching for two weeks already. But there is a catch. It's a year-round school. I will have 3 weeks off in a week. There are four different schedules with one coming on and one going off every three weeks roughly. The reason for doing so is NOT to get more money, but to save more money on having to build new schools. Curiously, too, we also save and shave 10 days off the school year by going 10 minutes longer every day too.

Makes you wonder if we get less fed money. Actually, that was the first time I had ever heard that statement.

I live in an area with decent winters and we almost never have snowdays. You're darned if you do and darned if you don't sometimes on those. When there is a big snowstorm, they get cussed out if they don't close the schools, but on the very few times they have, they have been cussed out because they did. You can't satisfy all the people all the time.

NOTE that I have seen pushes in some areas of the country to extend the school year from 180 to 225 days. And no, that did not exactly come from some people who wanted more money, but from parents and some of the companies who run schools as chains (this included having a longer day too).

[moog]

"The kids in our county start earlier but still go just 180 days and end up finishing much earlier than surrounding counties. There is currently a push to start Aug 1 and end at Memorial Day. It's a thought."

In Korea, they start in March or April. They do get about a month off during summer and more than two months off in wenter. The funny thing is that a lot of them keep going to school anyways over the breaks to study or take classes from their teachers.

[moog]

Bingo. More time for brainwashing...it takes a long time to wash a brain.

Could you give me some pointers on that? I haven't figured out how to do that to my students. I have tried, but have only been able to teach them things like reading, writing, and math and doing things like working hard, being honest, respecting their parents and family, etc. I just can't seem to get it right so if you could, please let me know how to brainwash the kids. Then I could tell a lot of other teachers around here how to do it, because they aren't doing it either.

[7thson]

First, I have always believed the main purpose of public schools is to get people indoctrinated into working. Get up at a certain time, go off to work/school, come home.

Second, I never could understand this 180 days of school, come hell or high water. School should start on a certain day and end on a certain day. Start the day after labor day and end the first week of June. You have to teach this stuff in that amount of time. If you miss school because of bad weather or other circumstances, you have to catch/make it up.

[moog]

How many three month vacations have you taken from work? Don't you think, say, four weeks would be enough for a child to relax, have some fun, and get ready for the next school year? I'm not advocating school as a prison, but, like it or not, it is the job of the kids to learn, and no job will ever give them that kind of break, so there's no sense in setting them up for such unrealistic expectations in the real world.

Interesting points, though I still advocate the time off. But here, it has more to do with having time for family vacations more than anything else.

[The Red Zone]

This Aug. 8 start date seems to have little to do with learning and much more to do with union politics.

That's counterintuitive; don't they want to not work more than they have to? Aren't they salaried, not hourly?

[Junior]

My boy, who lives in Navarre, Fla., started his first day of high school August 1. When I was his age, we didn't start until the first week of September.

[moog]

While I am not a home schooler, I always felt the two months off from school was very valuable to my children to learn about life.

Definitely when it is applied. I hear from many parents too how bored their kids are and how ready they are to go back to school. I think it depends on how one spends their time. For us, it meant doing house jobs or working in the garden.

[moog]

School is not prison and should not be like prison.

If I would have said that about school, my dad would have kicked my b---. We were expected to be at school and to learn something, even if our teacher wasn't the best. And homework came before TV or playing with friends.

[moog]

"Can I borrow your tin foil hat?"

Hehe, I guess that would be one way to brainwash the kids. When I was little, we would see the Moonies walking along the road and my mom would say something about brainwashing. I would be scared stiff because I had nightmares about them coming and taking my brain out of my head.

[moog]

My kids have done scout camp, church camp, tennis camp, band camp and a couple of trips. They also got to just relax some. All of these were learning experiences they couldn't have if they were in school. Structure is important, but too much is, well, too much.

Good points.

[moog]

(him to another poster)--Alright Neal Boortz wannabe, if you want to make sure all the little children in the country are not educated in 'gubbmint skools', then take the task on yourself. What the hell WERE you thinking? Whining about and extra 2-3 weeks in the summer that they AREN'T getting with their parents while not comprehending in your head that they get those 2-3 weeks in the school year is just plain stupid. If you are against 'gubbmint skools', be against them. But at least pick an intellegent cause to fight and not that they don't get those weeks in the summer. And don't be a smart a** with my typo. Be careful, he's going to pounce on that spelling of intelligent. The education liberals like him do that you know.

[Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit]

To get raises, the teachers have to attend summer classes in the state college system, and the new public-school schedule is designed around the college schedule. It has nothing at all to do with the needs of children

So you are saying that teachers continuing their education does nothing to make them better teachers and therefore benefit students? You are seriously lacking on the logic in your statement above pal. I will assume you are more mad than prof.

[moog]

There are just not all that many stay-at-home moms any more. That is unfortunate. We need more of them. Teachers sure appreciate stay-at-home moms. They are always there (well, not always, but most of the time) if some situation arises. It's always harder when the parent has to come rushing in from work to take care of a change of clothes or another of those situations that sometimes arise.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom and I am sure glad she was. I realize that many moms do have to work, but I sure respect those who choose to stay at home too. Actually, I jsut respect good moms period.