Summer is so long and it’s the worst for kids and parents.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Summer camps are usually staffed with older high school students and college students. Older high school students would also be on the same year round schedule so they would be available. Teachers looking for extra work would also be on the same schedule and available. College students, likely not. On the other hand, different school districts could have different weeks off during the school year, allowing some people to work a job between all the different camps. I remember living in Germany, that each state set the holidays off for their schools and they were staggered so the whole country wasn't on October break at the same time. Here's an example: Bavaria school holidays 2022-2023 Autumn holiday: October 31 - November 4, 2022 Christmas holiday: December 24, 2022 - January 7, 2023 Winter holiday: -- Bridge days: February 20 - February 24, 2023 Easter holiday: April 3 - April 15, 2023 Whitsun holiday: May 30 - June 9, 2023 Summer holiday: July 31 - September 11, 2023 Berlin school holidays 2022-2023 Autumn holiday: October 24 - November 5, 2022 Christmas holiday: December 22, 2022 - January 2, 2023 Winter holiday: January 30 - February 4, 2023 Easter holiday: April 3 - April 14, 2023 Bridge day: May 19, 2023 Whitsun holiday: May 30, 2023 Summer holiday: July 13 - August 25, 2023 Bremen school holidays 2022-2023 Autumn holiday: October 17 - October 29, 2022 Christmas holiday: December 23, 2022 - January 6, 2023 Winter holiday: January 30 - January 31, 2023 Easter holiday: March 27 - April 11, 2023 Bridge day: May 19, 2023 Whitsun holiday: May 30, 2023 Summer holiday: July 6 - August 16, 2023 Hamburg school holidays 2022-2023 Autumn holiday: October 10 - October 21, 2022 Christmas holiday: December 23, 2022 - January 6, 2023 Winter holiday: January 27, 2023 Easter holiday: March 6 - March 17, 2023 Whitsun holiday: May 15 - May 19, 2023 Summer holiday: July 13 - August 23, 2023 |
Anonymous
| Also -- school bus drivers, lunch workers and aides would be available during breaks for extra part time employment around the year long schedule. As would after care teachers. |
Anonymous
that is a big "though" |
Anonymous
| I would rather have one less week and I have a week off in the fall. |
Anonymous
Are you this patronizing in real life as well? And it's clearly an issue for many parents, especially ones who a) are not well off and b) are no SAHM or parents who can WFH. |
Anonymous
um, I am a nurse and I am allowed one week off in the summer. Is that the big DC life you speak of? DCUM is so utterly out of touch with reality. |
Anonymous
Move to Germany. |
Anonymous
DP I would move back to Germany if my kids would be able to keep up with German schools. After years in FCPS they would be way behind their peers. We’re stuck here. |
Anonymous
This. I have 2 tweens and this has been our best summer ever. Both old enough to go to the pool by themselves with friends. Old enough to get on their bikes and go find friends. Old enough to enjoy late summer nights and then sleep in. This has been a quintessential summer for my kids, and we haven't even done anything "big." |
Anonymous
|
As with many aspects of our education and childcare system ("system"), the problem is that these issues only exist for families where both parents work AND they have young kids AND they lack the support network that can make this easier (grandparents nearby, for instance).
Everyone else is unbothered because they don't have to do the childcare scramble every year. Plus even for families that struggle, they age out of the struggle. And there's this weird thing with parenting issues where when you age out of them you often become dismissive of other people who are struggling with the exact same thing. It's half "I did it so you can too" and half "once it was over I realized it wasn't that bad." It's one reason why parents are often one another's biggest critics. The learning loss piece isn't a sufficient motivator because people simply don't care enough. People with resources will pay to address that problem (I know some wealthy parents whose kids make their biggest academic leaps in the summer and actually LIKE the extra time off because they can do CTY or language tutoring and other things that school/activities actually get in the way of). Many people with fewer resources don't care as much, or have bigger fish to fry. So once again, it's this sliver of the population in the middle who cares about learning loss but can't afford to address it themselves. In other countries, education and childcare policy is actually crafted to address these groups in the middle -- it's geared at middle class dual income families and their kids. Many/most benefits also help poor families, but that's not the incentivizing force because poor people rarely have any political power, but middle class people in other countries do. And then rich people are going to do what they want and the key is to not stand in their way too much or they'll start making noise about how their taxes are funding the system for everyone else. It's a bit of a balance, but it starts by targeting the middle group. In the US, we just tell the middle group to figure it out and dangle the possibility of getting rich and not having to pay high taxes as an incentive (that most won't reach, especially in post-Boomer generations, due to education and housing costs). |
Anonymous
Well, my point is just that, staggering school vacation schedules could be one way to make the logistics of camp coverage work. |
Anonymous
There's tons of proof that summer slide is real and harmful. Most schools who are year round are either small enough that they can handle "camps" within the school, just like they handle before and aftercare in house. Or they have a rotation of which classes are out, usually a 6-7 week on, 2 week off schedule. With a rotation, camps would have no problem doing smaller groups and keeping employees full time. |
Anonymous
This. Foreign exchange students from Germany and Austria even 20 years ago at my college prep boarding school had to take multiple AP courses just to have the year count at all. |
Anonymous
+1 I don’t get people who are so against change and think people should just deal with things as is. There would be no labor laws, antidiscrimination policies, etc. if nothing was allowed to change. We don’t have to keep doing something just because that is how it’s been done before. |
Anonymous
This |