Obama advocates longer school year

Hmm. This ought to get interesting. Seems like numbers are down, and now it sounds like he is pushing for a year round school. Not saying I don't agree, but I wonder how well this will go over with the teachers union which he was heavily backed by from my understanding.......

Edited by oldpbnoob - 27 September 2010 at 3:57pm

someone doesn't know how year-round school works

It seems like a good idea. The rest of the world is generally testing better than we are, and the ones who are not are catching up fast. Part of the reason our schooling schedule has maintained the silly break it has - with that much length - is because 1) Teachers unions will complain about having to work the same hours as other folks, 2) Back in the day kids were needed to plant/harvest during break times, and 3) HVAC didn't exist, and kids tend to not pay attention well when it is 97*.

It's at least worth considering and slowing adapting a longer school year as not to spook everyone involved.


Oh, wait, Obama said it?

This is clearly a socialist takeover of the education system to make us more like the communists in Europe and Asia. Home school your kids before the moonbats teach them evolution.


Edited by agentwhale007 - 27 September 2010 at 4:14pm

choopie911 wrote: School all year round wont happen, the whole concept of summer is too culturally engrained to be broken anytime soon. More school days is a good thing though, we're way too big on doing the bare minimum.

Keeping near the same amount of school days in the schedule but spacing the breaks out better might be helpful since kids data dump so much. I'm on the fence about it, as someone entering the teaching field I could live with time off for spring fishing and hunting season instead of a full summer break, but I did already have several days where it was over 100*F in the classroom w/o AC. Also, this would screw over summer camps in a big way. Optional summer programs would be great, I see the benefits affluent kids get from a structured environment during the summer, even if it isn't academic work. Provide summer programs for decent students at low cost that involve things like field-trips, and have those as incentives for the summer-school crowd. A 3-4 week summer program open to all students could be great. Mandate grade-level performance in certain areas so poor students will have time to make it up, and more electives for other students. I could totally build a curriculum for students to help plan a 3 day hike and actually do it, and if it weren't for stupid MA laws we could set up our climbing wall and maybe get a ropes course in again. Anything is better than having kids in front of the X-Box all day during the summer, and parents don't necessarily have the time to take kids on vacation.

As to the lack of need for kids to do work, I'm taking it easy on homework for the next few weeks since it's firewood stacking season in the northeast. Had a 14 year old girl in class today who gave herself a nasty burn from the exhaust on a chainsaw. Kids could use some time to work, especially if their parents aren't going to buy them a car. Working more than 10hrs a week tends to correlate with lower grades during the school year.

agentwhale007 wrote: oldpbnoob wrote: I think you are looking for fight where there isn't one. Relax, killer, that was tongue-in-cheek.

Ok than. ZOMG! It's another Obama attempt to turn us into a European Socialst Utopian!

It would be nearly impossible at this point, at least in the Cleveland area.

While I was in school, I was fully against it. Now, I'm all for it.

For those of you who think that year round school means going 5 days a week, every week, for a full year, it doesn't.  The only difference between the traditional calendar, and year round is that in year round, the summer is spread out through the year.  same number of days, same number of hours.  

Schools now go back earlier in the summer than they did when I was in school. They stay the same amount too. They still have the Christmas Eve-Day after New Years off. Plus a week in spring.

Maybe there are more days off during the year though.