Last week of school shouldn’t count

[Anonymous]

3 kids attend alexandria catholic school. Last 5-7 days of the school year were a total joke — almost the entire school day was parties, mass, attending a day-long “variety show “ (ie, kids jumping around to Taylor Swift), and helping teachers move desks. Why did those days count toward the required Diocese minimum school days?

Meanwhile, neighbor’s kids at FCPS actually did school work up until the last day of school. And FCPS is free!

[Anonymous]

And in MCPS, the last 2 days were just add-ons required by the state because of snow days. DD did not attend.

[Anonymous]

The last week of school no kids do any actual
Work.

[Anonymous]

^^ no, in FCPS they did not do actual work. No schools do for the last week(s)

[Anonymous]

Shouldn’t count for what?

[Anonymous]

Are you the poster who is always on here complaining about your kids' private school not teaching them? Have you considered not returning next year?

And I've never heard anyone in FCPS talk about how they did work right up until the last day - maybe something until the last couple days but that's it. My neighbor was telling me her middle schooler spent the last day texting her about how bored she was because they'd turned in their phone pouches so everybody had their phone and was just sitting around on that.

And on the FCPS forum you have these about the last day/weeks of school:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1277836.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1277796.page
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1278738.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I've never heard anyone in FCPS talk about how they did work right up until the last day - maybe something until the last couple days but that's it. My neighbor was telling me her middle schooler spent the last day texting her about how bored she was because they'd turned in their phone pouches so everybody had their phone and was just sitting around on that.

That was a rather wild claim from OP. I have kids in DCPS and everyone checks out post-PARCC testing. My oldest reported doing nothing and watching shows on Disney+ this week, so yeah.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, FCPS is free.

Sick of Catholic schools trying to match pay and schedule of public schools. If Catholic school teachers want to switch to FCPS or ACPS fur a few thousand dollars and a couple more days off, they should go for it — let me know how much greener the grass is with public school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 kids attend alexandria catholic school. Last 5-7 days of the school year were a total joke — almost the entire school day was parties, mass, attending a day-long “variety show “ (ie, kids jumping around to Taylor Swift), and helping teachers move desks. Why did those days count toward the required Diocese minimum school days?

Meanwhile, neighbor’s kids at FCPS actually did school work up until the last day of school. And FCPS is free!

Grade books closed before the last week of school in FCPS. Kids were not doing any real work. Heck my rule following straight A kid ignored the worksheet the Science teacher passed out on Monday because it wasn't going to be graded. The entire class knew that.

[Anonymous]

Why do schools engage in this kabuki theater? Teachers can’t actually do work after school ends for children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do schools engage in this kabuki theater? Teachers can’t actually do work after school ends for children?

I mean at our private final exams went up until the second-to-last day of school and the last day was an assembly.

[Anonymous]

At some schools there are fun day trips and Field Day during the last week. IMO it's a great way to celebrate the end of year.

I get that things may need to be different at the high school level though.

[Anonymous]

Are you the same poster who complained about the frequency of mass at school? Maybe Catholic school (or maybe that particular Catholic school) is not for you.

Mine has a special all school field day, a variety show, sport tournament, etc and I think it’s great. They get a deserved break from work, the events build school spirit, and the last week wasn’t going to be a major learning period anyway. In public school they have a field day and show movies and play games. Come to think of it, they watch movies and play with apps a LOT in public school, all through the year. In our Catholic school, the kids are at least involved in learning activities for most of the time they are at school. I don’t begrudge them the few social fun days they do during the holidays and at the end of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine has a special all school field day, a variety show, sport tournament, etc and I think it’s great. They get a deserved break from work, the events build school spirit, and the last week wasn’t going to be a major learning period anyway. In public school they have a field day and show movies and play games. Come to think of it, they watch movies and play with apps a LOT in public school, all through the year. In our Catholic school, the kids are at least involved in learning activities for most of the time they are at school. I don’t begrudge them the few social fun days they do during the holidays and at the end of the year.

DP, and I think deliberate programs/events like these are great too! Our upper school has exams right until the end, but that's not going to make sense in elementary.

(I'm just frustrated with my kids' experience in public where there seems to be no plan for making these weeks meaningful. I don't need them to learn algebra in June, obviously, but it sucks that they go into summer thinking about school as the place where you sit around and fill time. OP's experience sounds pretty okay by comparison!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you the same poster who complained about the frequency of mass at school? Maybe Catholic school (or maybe that particular Catholic school) is not for you.

Mine has a special all school field day, a variety show, sport tournament, etc and I think it’s great. They get a deserved break from work, the events build school spirit, and the last week wasn’t going to be a major learning period anyway. In public school they have a field day and show movies and play games. Come to think of it, they watch movies and play with apps a LOT in public school, all through the year. In our Catholic school, the kids are at least involved in learning activities for most of the time they are at school. I don’t begrudge them the few social fun days they do during the holidays and at the end of the year.

Nope. Just a poster who believes that Catholic “SCHOOLS” shouldn’t be a glorified daycare or monastery, but instead should focus on LEARNING/ACADEMICS. A crazy idea, I know.

If they’re done teaching in early June, then send the kids home, instead of pretending to have “school.”