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Should Kids go to School All Year?

Should Kids go to School All Year?


  • Total voters
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I am a teacher, had about $60K in debt (private school), never take papers home to grade, never plan at home, hate the unions too...
I also come in on Saturdays usually to get everything ready for the next couple weeks. My lesson plans are prepared two weeks ahead of time.

P.S. I believe I'm paid very well. I make just as much or more than a lot of teachers who have been teaching longer than me.
You still come in on Saturdays. While I'm not in a position to speculate to much. I would say that you're definitely not the norm. All the teachers I knew were always grading at home. They often had after school meetings because they had to submit lesson plans to the state. Just because you make more than a lot of teachers doesn't mean you make a lot overall when compared to many jobs which require equal schooling and equal time put into them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I do want to be a teacher afterall.

OOC, what do you teach; grade (and subject if applicable?). I'm currently a secondary ed major with a concentration in the sciences as well as a double major in biology and I'm hoping to teach high school science.
 
Exactly. Kids are already stressed out these days due to school, social pressure, etc. They deserve a break from the horrid social settings that go on in schools.

This must be discussed with input from the children(this would be a first!) and input from the few "parents" who care.
Check the attendance at a PTA meeting..
So much improvement is necessary..
So foolish just to think that Sweden sets any standards, how about China and Japan or Germany and Israel??
The very worst are ours from the 18th century, yet we have people who embrace these.....
 
Do you really believe that? Running the school itself DOES cost money (utilities, paper and other supplies, etc.) plus you KNOW higher salaries would be demanded. Also, in many states, teachers are REQUIRED to take classes to maintain their certification status or they seek to upgrade their qualifications. The summer is the only time most teachers can do this...

Good points...
I favor that the schools become a 24/7 affair.
The upgrades should also be done at any time; not all concentrated during the summer time....
 
Good points...
I favor that the schools become a 24/7 affair.
The upgrades should also be done at any time; not all concentrated during the summer time....

Generally, teachers take college classes in order to meet recert requirements or to ungreat their certifications. Summer is the only time that is practical for teachers with families to do this...
 
Should Kids go to School All Year?

Here is a video about it: msnbc.com Video Player

I want to say maybe. I know that when I was kid going to school I enjoyed summer vacation and I do not think we should deprive kids of that because it is still important to let kids be kids. My family was poor so we didn't really get to do much of anything during the summer except maybe go to the park, the lake once in a blue moon, hang out with friends a lot more, spend the night at our grandparents or aunt and uncles for a couple of days,spent the night at friends house for a couple days or more, and stayed up late on any day of the week.

At the same time I realize that they would benefit because kids having fun for 2-3 months straight are not thinking about school work and after a while there would be no child going to school that remembers what it is like to have a summer vacation. Year round school would be only feasible if there is the cash for it.
 
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Something would have to make it possible for teachers to get the classes they need to maintain and/or upgrade their certification...

There's no reason they can't take those classes during evenings and weekends. My mom is a teacher and just got her masters degree that way.
 
You still come in on Saturdays. While I'm not in a position to speculate to much. I would say that you're definitely not the norm. All the teachers I knew were always grading at home. They often had after school meetings because they had to submit lesson plans to the state.

No, I'm not the norm at my school. One other teacher is always there when I am on Saturdays. Some teachers come in early everyday. Some stay late. I don't know many that work during the summer unless it's summer school which is only 4 weeks.

Just because you make more than a lot of teachers doesn't mean you make a lot overall when compared to many jobs which require equal schooling and equal time put into them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I do want to be a teacher afterall.

I make the average salary in my state. If I didn't have my Masters I would still be at the low end of the pool.

OOC, what do you teach; grade (and subject if applicable?). I'm currently a secondary ed major with a concentration in the sciences as well as a double major in biology and I'm hoping to teach high school science.

Elementary. I have my Masters in reading education with a reading specialist endorsement.
 
We do conferences througout the school year to help meet our certification requirements. I've never had to go to any conferences during the summer (unless it's for summer school).
 
I absolutely ADORE my 2 and half months off with my son in vactionland. But I do see the toll it takes on him. 2 and a half months break to too long. Kids *do* lose some of what they've learned, and the month of September is usually spent catching up. That's a waste. Because the kids and the teachers are all anxious and excited for the long break, the actual lessons taper off a few weeks before end of school. By Memorial Day weekend, my kid is usually done learning anything.

Because so many families are unable or unwilling to have one parent home, many kids are warehoused in craptastic "camps" for the summer. Sure there are some excellent camps out there, but the affordable ones are often junk. I cannot imagine what kind of "break" it is to go to some dump in town with no place to swim (except on periodic field trips) 5 days a week usually from 8-5 and learn to make ice cream in a bag.

With or without camp, my mom friends and I have come to expect what we refer to as the mid-summer meltdown. It happens every year without fail. Kids need and crave structure. When unstructured goes on for too long, kids do not do well. The meltdown ensues and lasts for about 2 weeks. Kids start to perk up again in August (ironically or not) when the back to school ads start airing.

I also believe it sets people up for major disappointment when they enter the real world and find that they only get one week off each year. :shock:

So I support year round school with a few well timed, longer breaks. Get rid of the one week off in November, December, February and April, and space things out better with a longer break. Then a month off in the summer.
 
I don't really buy into the whole three month break thing causes kids to forget. I mean yeah I forgot some stuff during summer, but after a day or two back it all came back. I think the real issue is how it is being taught rather than how long the kids are on break. Also it depends on what the kids do during break that affect it too. My friends in public school never had to read during the summer so they spent all their time playing video games and such. I on the other hand had required reading, about 3 or 4 books during the summer, and so my mind did have the ability to become lazy.

I think that's the problem with the 3 month break. I don't think they "forget" per se, but they do get lazy.

On a side note, I HATE it when teachers say the 3 best things about their job are June, July and August. Makes me sad.
 
Absolutely and with perhaps more one vacations periods to breakup the school year. During the summer a two week vacation would be in order, this way the kids won't have to use the first month to rehash what they have learned last year school session.
 
Should Kids go to School All Year?

Here is a video about it: msnbc.com Video Player

Yes, kids should go to school all year. However, the programs they are allowed to take at school should be expanded so they can use school resources, such as computers and the internet, to pursue their own interests as well.
 
This idea comes up from time to time, and it never pans out.

I dropped out of high school when I was 17 because I was finding it unbearable to work within that system. I dropped out at a point that I only had a few more courses left so I could make it up with correspondence, but I guarantee you that if summer school was mandatory I would have dropped out immediately at 16. Summer times were the only time where I had a chance to relax and try to do other things with my life that I enjoyed, and not have to worry about academia.

I wholeheartedly disagree with academic die hards who think that schooling is the best thing in the world for kids and that kids just need more school. Too much school produces children who are square and have no real world skills.

Also, I think kids are getting more and more bored at school because technology outside of school is increasing their processing speed. Look at the kinds of video games and computer interactions kids are having now; and then they go to school and are expected to sit there for hours being talked at. The way we teach children has to change to become more interactive and dynamic, because that is the way the outside world is becoming.

I really would not be where I am today without the real world experience I gained from being OUT of school.

I agree.

I think I would of taken my life if I had to be at school year round, seriously.
Geesh I hated it so much.
 
I think that's the problem with the 3 month break. I don't think they "forget" per se, but they do get lazy.

On a side note, I HATE it when teachers say the 3 best things about their job are June, July and August. Makes me sad.

Which is why they should be assigned homework over the summer. Nothing much, but enough so they don't get lazy. If I had year round school I might have killed myself.
 
Which is why they should be assigned homework over the summer. Nothing much, but enough so they don't get lazy. If I had year round school I might have killed myself.

I think it would require some getting used to, but after awhile it would be like normal. And you'd have 2 or 3 week long breaks every few months. I would love it.
 
Which is why they should be assigned homework over the summer. Nothing much, but enough so they don't get lazy. If I had year round school I might have killed myself.

Yea they try to do something like that with the summer reading program.
No thanks, I don't want to read a bunch of preselected books the teacher likes.
 
I think it would require some getting used to, but after awhile it would be like normal. And you'd have 2 or 3 week long breaks every few months. I would love it.

As a teacher maybe. As a student who has been in class since last July straight, so a full year I can tell you I am so damn tired of school. That is including the month off I have for Christmas and at least a three day weekend every month.
 
Yea they try to do something like that with the summer reading program.
No thanks, I don't want to read a bunch of preselected books the teacher likes.

You'd love my class then. You can read whatever you want. :)
 
Yea they try to do something like that with the summer reading program.
No thanks, I don't want to read a bunch of preselected books the teacher likes.

Oh see it was different for me. I had to give them a list of books I wanted to read and they had to check and make sure the books were not under my grade level.
 
You'd love my class then. You can read whatever you want. :)

Oh see it was different for me. I had to give them a list of books I wanted to read and they had to check and make sure the books were not under my grade level.

They handed out a sheet of paper at the end of the year with a list of books to read.
I ended up tossing it in the trash because they weren't interesting to me.
Never did get in trouble for it.

You guys have/had it better than I experienced.
 
They handed out a sheet of paper at the end of the year with a list of books to read.
I ended up tossing it in the trash because they weren't interesting to me.
Never did get in trouble for it.

You guys have/had it better than I experienced.

We had to read what the teachers assigned in high school. In elementary school, I could read what I wanted and that's how my classroom works. I'll have one kid learning about the Civil War while another is reading Beezus and Ramona and another is listening to Harry Potter on CD and another is trying to find out what kind of leaf he found at recess in my tree book.
 
We had to read what the teachers assigned in high school. In elementary school, I could read what I wanted and that's how my classroom works. I'll have one kid learning about the Civil War while another is reading Beezus and Ramona and another is listening to Harry Potter on CD and another is trying to find out what kind of leaf he found at recess in my tree book.

That would of been better in my opinion but honestly, I hated school with a passion.
I really, really hated it.

I remember in 8th grade going to sleep in class because many of the students had serious reading problems, couldn't pronounce words, etc.
The better read students are stuffed in the class with the kids that had reading problems.

It was moronic.
 
Oh, I don't do round robin reading either. It's not effective.
 
There's no reason they can't take those classes during evenings and weekends. My mom is a teacher and just got her masters degree that way.

Plenty of reasons... family, coaching obligations (tough taking classes while a sports season is going on). Your mom was an exception. It would have been impossible for me to take classes like that when I was teaching in Georgia.
 
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