The case against summer vacation

[SFG75]

The case against summer vacation.

For the past four years, I've taught during the summer. I'm beginning to realize that my attitude on this has changed dramatically as a result. The year round format with a two or three week break between spring and summer semesters is enough time for a family to plan a trip or two. Any more than that, and the only thing that will be impeded is junior spending 30 more hours on the X-box or PS-2. Given that the U.S. is no longer an agrarian economy, we need to rethink why we don't move beyond this antiquated system that we currently have.

Any thoughts?

 

[sparkchaser]

Make them go year round and scatter around a few two week breaks.

 

[brk_3]

Public School systems are flawed because they teach to a test and the curriculum is fast paced and a lot of students fall behind. That's even during the school months. It's no wonder that kids lose what they learned during the summer break.
My wife and I get work books (grade level) for our kids to work on during the summer. They need to put in an average of 2 hours a day towards these studies. This way they don't lose as much over the summer.
As far as a Vacation destination spot, we started doing short trips or day trips to places where the kids can learn something and also have fun.

Make them go year round and scatter around a few two week breaks.

This is what it's going to. Some schools sytem let out in late June and start back up in early August.

 

[abecedarian]

Speaking from the perspective of homeschooling mom, with some kids still at home and some enrolled at the local high school, much as I hate to say it, I think the year-round school idea has merit. Year-round with frequent week or two breaks is better. The only activity my kids do in summer that they can't during the school year, is swimming. Many small town schools do not have indoor pools, so swim lessons and swim team activities are held in municipal outdoor pools. Another idea might be to have half-day school days during the summer months.
For me as a home educator, I've always thought we should school year round, but with the neighbor kids free during the summer and swim lessons, and camp, it just never happened. I was like a bass trying to swim against a stream full of salmon on a mission.

 

[beer good]

The year round format with a two or three week break between spring and summer semesters is enough time for a family to plan a trip or two.

Wouldn't that lead to a scenario where 300 million Americans all go on holiday the same 2 weeks?

 

[abecedarian]

Wouldn't that lead to a scenario where 300 million Americans all go on holiday the same 2 weeks?

Getting every school district in the US to synchronize their schedules would be a real Act of God. I can't imagine it ever happening. What we have now is not that different though. Ever try to stand in line for a ride at Silver Dollar City in Branson Missiouri between the end of May and Labor Day weekend? Not for the faint of heart!

 

[Litany]

Don't schools also have maintenance that needs doing? When will that happen if not the summer? I know year round teaching has been proposed in the UK for universities, but we're not terribly thrilled by the idea. Right now summer is when we Get Stuff Done. Building maintenance, upgrades, research and conferences all take place during the summer. Take that away and when do we repair waterpipes, replace windows, upgrade computer labs, refit lecture theatres and discover a cure for cancer?

Ok, so your average school isn't conducting much research, but they've still got classrooms that need painting and leaky roofs that need fixing. There's more to consider than just how long the kids need for a family holiday.

 

[abecedarian]

Don't schools also have maintenance that needs doing? When will that happen if not the summer? I know year round teaching has been proposed in the UK for universities, but we're not terribly thrilled by the idea. Right now summer is when we Get Stuff Done. Building maintenance, upgrades, research and conferences all take place during the summer. Take that away and when do we repair waterpipes, replace windows, upgrade computer labs, refit lecture theatres and discover a cure for cancer?

Ok, so your average school isn't conducting much research, but they've still got classrooms that need painting and leaky roofs that need fixing. There's more to consider than just how long the kids need for a family holiday.

Good point. The high school parking lot is being repaved this week. I suppose if we had year round schooling, maintenance jobs would have to be scheduled during those two or three week breaks.

 

[Litany]

I suppose if we had year round schooling, maintenance jobs would have to be scheduled during those two or three week breaks.

Which is fine if it's only a two week job with no risk of it over running, and as long as all the other schools in the area aren't planning on having similar work done and so competing for the same resources/workers, or else you have staggered holidays so there isn't such a massive rush on to get stuff done.

And who oversees it and when do they get their holidays?

 

[abecedarian]

Which is fine if it's only a two week job with no risk of it over running, and as long as all the other schools in the area aren't planning on having similar work done and so competing for the same resources/workers, or else you have staggered holidays so there isn't such a massive rush on to get stuff done.

And who oversees it and when do they get their holidays?

I'm not in the know, but I've seen USD 259 maintenance workers(we used to call them custodians) working on stuff all summer. Or at least they're driving maintenance trucks around and trying to look busy. I suspect they handle vacations like they do at my husband's company; they have to have a core group there at any given time, so vacations are scheduled individually, on a staggered basis. You won't see all of Mr. Abc's coworkers at Disney World in the same week.

 

[Litany]

Aye, but your average small school doesn't have a large team of maintenance staff. At least not when I was a nipper. My smaller schools had only one caretaker, who had to be available when we were at school in case the toilets exploded or the school fell down a well. If they're also in charge of the maintenance and have only two weeks here and there to do it in they have a lot less opportunity to get away on holibags. With a long summer holiday they have the time to get the work done and to get away from it all.

At my first school, the caretaker's house was on the school property with his garden connected to the playground. I can still remember the day we all gathered at the fence during breaktime to watch dogs having sex on his lawn. Happy days.

 

[abecedarian]

Aye, but your average small school doesn't have a large team of maintenance staff. At least not when I was a nipper. My smaller schools had only one caretaker, who had to be available when we were at school in case the toilets exploded or the school fell down a well. If they're also in charge of the maintenance and have only two weeks here and there to do it in they have a lot less opportunity to get away on holibags. With a long summer holiday they have the time to get the work done and to get away from it all.

At my first school, the caretaker's house was on the school property with his garden connected to the playground. I can still remember the day we all gathered at the fence during breaktime to watch dogs having sex on his lawn. Happy days.

I can still remember the custodians from my primary school. Mr Knaack always looked like he'd been force fed a whole bag of lemons. Acted like it too. Nobody dared to cross him. Mr. Price was the exact opposite. Warm and friendly, he was in constant danger of being mobbed by crowds of adoring kids who would each receive hugs and pats on the back, no matter how hard our teachers urged us to move on and get back to class. It was nice to have an adult on the premises that liked us even if our teachers were grumpy with us from time to time. Nowadays, those hugs and friendly chats in the hall wouldn't happen as Mr. Price would have to keep his distance or be accused of something evil. Most custodians today look more like Mr. Knaack.

 

[joderu95]

I suggested to a fellow teacher that maybe we could go four days a week and make summer break more like four weeks instead of eleven. The response I got was shockingly stupid. He said then we wouldn't get paid as much because we wouldn't work as many days in the month. This is a teacher who has been in the classroom instructing students for decades and he doesn't understand how a salaried position is paid and that the simple rearrangement of days worked would have no effect on overall pay.

I think it could be shortened considerably but still remain the main vacation time for families with school age children. Plus breaking up the monotony during the year might revive student interest. Or at least refresh wearisome teachers. Instead of just a Winter break and Spring break maybe there's a full week at Thanksgiving, a week in late February and one some time after Spring break but before Summer break.

 

[Zolipara]

I suggested to a fellow teacher that maybe we could go four days a week and make summer break more like four weeks instead of eleven.

I would much prefer to have an occasional week off instead of one day a week. With just one day off i'd end up working that day anyway.

 

[sparkchaser]

Joderu makes some good points.

 

[sparkchaser]

Why is this in mature discussion anyway? Do we not want the kids' opinions?

 

[Zolipara]

Why do we have a mature discussions forum really?

 

[abecedarian]

Why do we have a mature discussions forum really?

Good question. Since Darren is no longer on the scene, why do we need a mature discussions forum any longer? I think the original worries that things might get too heated or off-color(or whatever) have been proven invalid. Maybe it's time to examine this again.

 

[sparkchaser]

Why do we have a mature discussions forum really?

That's a damn fine question. As of late the discussions haven't really been "mature". Maybe we need a prostitution thread or a legalize marijuana thread or something.


Then again, some people don't want to see the threads that are posted here and have made that clear.

Some of us are actually not members of the Mature group, by choice. It keeps our thoughts clear and our heads empty. :whistling:

Speaking only for myself, of course.

 

[Litany]

So we could start a thread about people being thread killers without the thread killers being able to kill it?