Year round school?

[doctor100]

In America, primary school last from late August to early May, generally. In addition to this break, we normally get a break for Christmas (about 3 weeks), a break for Thanksgiving (a week), and a two week break which "spring break" around Easter. the notion of doing a year round school year has cropped up rather regularly, but generally gets shot down by teacher unions, or concerned parents who want the vacation time with the children. Historically, summer time was reserved for rural farm work. the year round program is normally suggested because students "forget" classwork over the summer.

First, it should be noted, that a year round school curriculum increases school time by 50%, meaning that by the time a student reaches eighth grade age, they have the same as today's 12th grade education. If they remained in school for the same amount of time, a student would be holding roughly 4-6 years of college level education by the same age they graduate now. that is a bachelor's or a masters.

A college education ends up being only post grad work, a law degree nearly becomes the modern equal to an associates.

I would suggest the following:
classes are only a semester long, if you fail a class you get set back only 4 months rather than a year.
Teachers only work 2 semesters a year, but are required to complete a college level class every year. (maybe 9 credit hours instead=3 classes?)
a six week vacation in winter from Thanksgiving to Christmas


and that's about it. discuss?

[Packbat]

I don't see any obvious problems with year-round school, but reality has a way of seeing problems that theory misses. Have there been any places which experimented with year-round schooling? If so, how did they go?

Also, related to the 50%-more-semesters math: I recall hearing of a study suggesting that teaching, say, arithmetic in earlier grades doesn't actually teach arithmetic - the students acquire fluency no earlier.

[doctor100]

unfortunately, the majority of year round schooling experiments use equal vacation time, spread out throughout the year.

So far as a study re: math and young children, a quick web search only reveals numerous studies saying that young children can learn math quicker and better than they currently normally do.

[MysticWav]

Eh, before increasing the school time, I'd rather see efforts to use the current amount of time more effectively. I remember school being a cakewalk when I was young where we'd waste who knows how much time moving everyone along at the same pace (usually that of the slowest kid who wasn't such a troublemaker that you gave up on him/her) and the kids actively working to slow the pace further so they could avoid homework.

I kind of like a reform suggestion a while back that suggests flipping instruction and homework around. You watch the 'lecture' as it were at home on your own time at your own speed and then go to school periodically to do the homework where you can get professional assistance with items you may be having trouble with. Seems like it would be a more efficient use of resources in terms of buildings and personnel too.

[Kizor]

An environmental factor: summer vacation's three months long up here in Finland, at least in part so the kids could get some sun when there's plenty to be had. Maybe even catch some fresh air that's not trying to freeze them to death, and get used to things like grass, flowers, and insects. Take a non-crazy swim. Being cooped up indoors on a beautiful days is a pity by itself, but when beauty's at a premium, it's something even worse.

Actually, I'll be right back.

[Globus]

I kind of like a reform suggestion a while back that suggests flipping instruction and homework around. You watch the 'lecture' as it were at home on your own time at your own speed and then go to school periodically to do the homework where you can get professional assistance with items you may be having trouble with. Seems like it would be a more efficient use of resources in terms of buildings and personnel too.

This. Is. Awesome! I'm a fan.

[doctor100]

Internet class/study hall:
First off, internet classes do not tend to teach as well as the classroom.
are we going to provide a internet connection to poor students?
Also, that consumes a large amount of home time.
[edit] it also demands a lot of 1 on 1 attention, which may not be able with staff requirements.

Also, I think we need a few more classes:
Spatial awareness (elementary), leading to machinery (middle school) and technical knowledge (high school).

[rchard2scout]

Where I live (Holland) we have 7 weeks of summer vacation, in July and August, one week autumn break, 2 weeks Christmas break, 1 week in February and 1 week in May. Additionaly, there are some more days off for Eastern, Ascension Day, and Pentecost, amounting to a total of 40 school weeks, or 200 days. It's not really "year round", but it's a lot closer than the US system.

[Alex Starkiller]

rchard, that's close to what I had, but you got four more weeks. We get about seven weeks for summer vacation, in June and July, we get three weeks of Christmas vacation, two weeks both Fall and Spring breaks. It adds up to 180 actual school days.

[Razmoudah]

Personally I'm rather in agreement with the extended vacation from Thanksgiving to New Years (Lets face it, who wants to go back to school before then?), but that's most for the kids whose major winter religious Holy Day(s) usually don't land in the typical Christmas Vacation time range, as they either get less classroom time than the Christian kids or have to skip out on their major Holy Day(s). I do see one major complication with extending the school year through most of the winter months though, where I live (in Iowa, USA) the heat index can frequently hit triple digits, and most schools around here don't have sufficient air-conditioning to compensate for it without potentially endangering the kids (heck, I drive school bus and the district I drive for started back on August 18th, most of the first full week of school we had unplanned early-outs because of the heat, so the kids effectively lost class time do to the heat), and don't forget that most school busses don't have A/C in them either, and that can get fairly brutal on the poor kids as well. There are reasons other than relaxation/educational regarding the discussion of having year round school. I think I'd personally rather see them go to a six-day week (Monday through Saturday), with the sixth day being a half-day and alternating which "periods" of classes the kids have on that day each week. It's the closest thing to an effective blanket solution you can get, but there would still be people arguing against it.