Last week of school shouldn’t count

[Anonymous]

St. Mary’s is not for you. Just take your children out. Enough with the complaining about not publishing honor roll, mass frequency, lack of academics. I’m sure there’s a waiting list of people who would love your spot. Hopefully ACPS or FCPS will be a better fit for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s is not for you. Just take your children out. Enough with the complaining about not publishing honor roll, mass frequency, lack of academics. I’m sure there’s a waiting list of people who would love your spot. Hopefully ACPS or FCPS will be a better fit for your family.

Pretty sure she’s talking about the other Catholic school in alexandria, up north a bit.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t like the school’s curriculum and programming, don’t send them to that school. There are lots of options in Alexandria, find one that works for your family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

So you are comfortable demanding that the Catholic school teachers work harder and longer for less pay?

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'm misreading, but perhaps this is more a criticism of the way state's enforce number of school days, making schools stretch their calendars, even when teaching has ended. I think both in the private and public schools it has been a problem this year.

[Anonymous]

Imagine businesses that insisted all workers be at their desk working hard until 5PM on December 24. That's what OP is expecting here.

There are many reasons to have a light final week of the year. Students and staff are both burned out after 180+ days of regular lessons. Student attention spans are just about zero. What do you think they will retain over the summer if it's taught in early June?

Don't kid yourself. Schools are also communities that need morale building to work well. Businesses will do off-site fun activities to buck up their workforce; schools have field days, parties, etc. The good privates make this a positive week to send the kids with a positive image of school and learning.

Rapping their knuckles until the last second of the last day is just playing Scrooge. It's useless and pointless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.”

But did they publish the dean’s list this year??

[Anonymous]

^oh sorry, honor roll. Not dean’s list.

[Anonymous]

I feel like there's a lot of fluff at the end of the year too. But most schools run more than the required minimum # of days (it's why when there are snow days they don't necessarily need to add more days at the end of the year).

[Anonymous]

Are you Teacher 1 or Teacher 2?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/icvZzVNO0OE

[Anonymous]

It was different in LS/MS but in HS classes and work load are running hot right to the last day, then there’s a week of exams, and then it’s summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you Teacher 1 or Teacher 2?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/icvZzVNO0OE

That teacher is all confused with "human connections" in a school, obviously. Instead we need to teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, test information, teach information, and on and on and on.

That's what some people want in a school. Guess what? Tons of kids will forget everything they are tested on the second the test is over. It's a crappy model.

[Anonymous]

Where’s your joy? Treat the last week of school like a festival. It’s ok. If you are worried about academics that week, you can supplement at home. But also know that your kids are learning other things that week, like good sportsmanship, creativity, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where’s your joy? Treat the last week of school like a festival. It’s ok. If you are worried about academics that week, you can supplement at home. But also know that your kids are learning other things that week, like good sportsmanship, creativity, etc.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine businesses that insisted all workers be at their desk working hard until 5PM on December 24. That's what OP is expecting here.

There are many reasons to have a light final week of the year. Students and staff are both burned out after 180+ days of regular lessons. Student attention spans are just about zero. What do you think they will retain over the summer if it's taught in early June?

Don't kid yourself. Schools are also communities that need morale building to work well. Businesses will do off-site fun activities to buck up their workforce; schools have field days, parties, etc. The good privates make this a positive week to send the kids with a positive image of school and learning.

Rapping their knuckles until the last second of the last day is just playing Scrooge. It's useless and pointless.

The BS at the end of the school year and before holidays has NOTHING to do with the children or morale or community building, etc. It’s just another manifestation of the degradation and decline in all service sectors over the last decade or so, especially since Covid. Nobody wants to work anymore (including teachers), which is why services suck nowadays.

30 years ago, schools operated normally until the last day or so of school. This phenomenon of goofing off the last 1-2 weeks is new.