Is there ANY way to put the genie back in the bottle re: all of the religious holidays off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is thinking about the low income and ESL students who need consistent support to make progress against their educational goals.

You think you are, but have no research and the research that is out there says it doesn’t matter WHEN, but it does matter how many hours.

Show us that research. There is no research that says hours, no matter how incinsistently applied, is the same as a consistent schedule. You're misinterpreting research on alternative schedules.

I already did in at least of these threads. The main research said 180 days is 180 days and the TIME in school matters over placement of the days.
All other research about extending the school year and adding breaks is mixed. Feel free to find the link I already posted in an easy to watch PBS segment or do more research yourself and post that.

I believe the study was comparing a traditional 9-10 month calendar with a year round calendar. I don’t believe any study has been performed where 180 days were randomly selected to hold school over the course of a year to prove time in school mattered over placement of days. Traditional and full year calendars still have consistent 4-5 day school weeks. It’s the distribution of longer breaks that changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody thinks spring break tied to Easter is a good idea. I’m a devout Christian and dislike having that week as spring break. We care about celebrating Easter which means we have to come home early for spring break so as to avoid traveling on Easter. I think the problem with moving it is it’s harder to align with other jurisdictions. ‘Everyone’ probably could agree that spring break should be at the end of the 3rd quarter, but different school systems have different dates for the end of the 3rd quarter. Tying spring break to Easter makes to easier to align with neighboring jurisdictions.

Same. We're religious and traveled to family for Spring Break. I had to travel home on actual Easter instead of being able to spend it with family or attend Easter services. I would like Spring break to be any week but Easter week actually.

Why isn't Easter weekend the first weekend of Spring break?

It makes the most sense to align it with the end of 3rd quarter, honestly. Then it's fixed. Ideally winter break could align with the end of the semester, but there's SO much history tying it to Christmas nationwide I think you'd have to move the whole calendar to make that happen.

At this point it's not even about tying it to Christmas but matching the same time that all your family and relatives have off from work and school, even those in other parts of the country and much of the world. That's the week my work is shut down. That's the week that work slows down for my husband and he can take time off. That's the week that cousins are available for a visit. It's a time the whole country steps back. You can't just randomly choose a different set of weeks.

Exactly!!

Culturally in the US (religion aside) the week from just before Christmas through January 2nd is the week to 10 days that the entire nation collectively takes a break, shuts down and celebrates with family.

If you don't like it, there are plenty of countries that do this at other times of the year.

It is amazing that anyone is trying to argue against closing schools that week.

Even in culturally diverse Fairfax County, 80% or more of the population celebrates Christmas, likely higher when you include completely secular households.

There would be almost no teachers, virtually no school support staff or bus drivers (majority hispanics, so likely Christian Catholics) and fewer than 20% of the students in attendance the week of Christmas.

Anyone saying that FCPS should decouple winter break from Christmas is a completely unserious, culturally illiterate troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody thinks spring break tied to Easter is a good idea. I’m a devout Christian and dislike having that week as spring break. We care about celebrating Easter which means we have to come home early for spring break so as to avoid traveling on Easter. I think the problem with moving it is it’s harder to align with other jurisdictions. ‘Everyone’ probably could agree that spring break should be at the end of the 3rd quarter, but different school systems have different dates for the end of the 3rd quarter. Tying spring break to Easter makes to easier to align with neighboring jurisdictions.

Same. We're religious and traveled to family for Spring Break. I had to travel home on actual Easter instead of being able to spend it with family or attend Easter services. I would like Spring break to be any week but Easter week actually.

Why isn't Easter weekend the first weekend of Spring break?

It makes the most sense to align it with the end of 3rd quarter, honestly. Then it's fixed. Ideally winter break could align with the end of the semester, but there's SO much history tying it to Christmas nationwide I think you'd have to move the whole calendar to make that happen.

At this point it's not even about tying it to Christmas but matching the same time that all your family and relatives have off from work and school, even those in other parts of the country and much of the world. That's the week my work is shut down. That's the week that work slows down for my husband and he can take time off. That's the week that cousins are available for a visit. It's a time the whole country steps back. You can't just randomly choose a different set of weeks.

Exactly!!

Culturally in the US (religion aside) the week from just before Christmas through January 2nd is the week to 10 days that the entire nation collectively takes a break, shuts down and celebrates with family.

If you don't like it, there are plenty of countries that do this at other times of the year.

It is amazing that anyone is trying to argue against closing schools that week.

Even in culturally diverse Fairfax County, 80% or more of the population celebrates Christmas, likely higher when you include completely secular households.

There would be almost no teachers, virtually no school support staff or bus drivers (majority hispanics, so likely Christian Catholics) and fewer than 20% of the students in attendance the week of Christmas.

Anyone saying that FCPS should decouple winter break from Christmas is a completely unserious, culturally illiterate troll.

Great summary!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody thinks spring break tied to Easter is a good idea. I’m a devout Christian and dislike having that week as spring break. We care about celebrating Easter which means we have to come home early for spring break so as to avoid traveling on Easter. I think the problem with moving it is it’s harder to align with other jurisdictions. ‘Everyone’ probably could agree that spring break should be at the end of the 3rd quarter, but different school systems have different dates for the end of the 3rd quarter. Tying spring break to Easter makes to easier to align with neighboring jurisdictions.

Same. We're religious and traveled to family for Spring Break. I had to travel home on actual Easter instead of being able to spend it with family or attend Easter services. I would like Spring break to be any week but Easter week actually.

Why isn't Easter weekend the first weekend of Spring break?

It makes the most sense to align it with the end of 3rd quarter, honestly. Then it's fixed. Ideally winter break could align with the end of the semester, but there's SO much history tying it to Christmas nationwide I think you'd have to move the whole calendar to make that happen.

At this point it's not even about tying it to Christmas but matching the same time that all your family and relatives have off from work and school, even those in other parts of the country and much of the world. That's the week my work is shut down. That's the week that work slows down for my husband and he can take time off. That's the week that cousins are available for a visit. It's a time the whole country steps back. You can't just randomly choose a different set of weeks.

Exactly!!

Culturally in the US (religion aside) the week from just before Christmas through January 2nd is the week to 10 days that the entire nation collectively takes a break, shuts down and celebrates with family.

If you don't like it, there are plenty of countries that do this at other times of the year.

It is amazing that anyone is trying to argue against closing schools that week.

Even in culturally diverse Fairfax County, 80% or more of the population celebrates Christmas, likely higher when you include completely secular households.

There would be almost no teachers, virtually no school support staff or bus drivers (majority hispanics, so likely Christian Catholics) and fewer than 20% of the students in attendance the week of Christmas.

Anyone saying that FCPS should decouple winter break from Christmas is a completely unserious, culturally illiterate troll.

You have all the pieces right here but you didn’t quite put them together.

The terrible schedule is yet another manifestation of identity politics/“equity” at work.

There is a segment of the fringe left that believes in celebrating every single religious holiday that is not Christian.

The U.S., including Fairfax County, is overwhelmingly Christian or at least culturally Christian. Colleges, the government, private industry all slow down or close completely over Christmas and the New Year. Decoupling winter break from everything else in the country is profoundly unserious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is thinking about the low income and ESL students who need consistent support to make progress against their educational goals.

You think you are, but have no research and the research that is out there says it doesn’t matter WHEN, but it does matter how many hours.

Show us that research. There is no research that says hours, no matter how incinsistently applied, is the same as a consistent schedule. You're misinterpreting research on alternative schedules.

I already did in at least of these threads. The main research said 180 days is 180 days and the TIME in school matters over placement of the days.
All other research about extending the school year and adding breaks is mixed. Feel free to find the link I already posted in an easy to watch PBS segment or do more research yourself and post that.

I believe the study was comparing a traditional 9-10 month calendar with a year round calendar. I don’t believe any study has been performed where 180 days were randomly selected to hold school over the course of a year to prove time in school mattered over placement of days. Traditional and full year calendars still have consistent 4-5 day school weeks. It’s the distribution of longer breaks that changes.

I think a distribution of longer breaks is what would be desired. I'm in Loudoun and my kids have tomorrow off. WHY? Why wasn't this moved to last Monday to give kids 6 days off for spring break. Why just randomly choose a Friday after kids have already been off the whole week before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody thinks spring break tied to Easter is a good idea. I’m a devout Christian and dislike having that week as spring break. We care about celebrating Easter which means we have to come home early for spring break so as to avoid traveling on Easter. I think the problem with moving it is it’s harder to align with other jurisdictions. ‘Everyone’ probably could agree that spring break should be at the end of the 3rd quarter, but different school systems have different dates for the end of the 3rd quarter. Tying spring break to Easter makes to easier to align with neighboring jurisdictions.

Same. We're religious and traveled to family for Spring Break. I had to travel home on actual Easter instead of being able to spend it with family or attend Easter services. I would like Spring break to be any week but Easter week actually.

Why isn't Easter weekend the first weekend of Spring break?

It makes the most sense to align it with the end of 3rd quarter, honestly. Then it's fixed. Ideally winter break could align with the end of the semester, but there's SO much history tying it to Christmas nationwide I think you'd have to move the whole calendar to make that happen.

They’d be better off transitioning to trimesters if they were serious about aligning long breaks with the end of a term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think having every religious holiday under the sun is absolutely absurd but maybe I’m in the minority.

Monday and Friday off this week after spring break? Absolutely asinine.

So no holidays approximating any religious holidays? Or should we violate the establishments clause?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way, I love the days off and what they represent. Most secondary parents like them, whether they care about the holidays off or not.

Good to know you don't value education. Most. parents and teacher do.

EWTF are you talking about. The number of instruction days don't change. If you really value education, your kid would use these extra days to study.

I suspect what you are really upset by is the disruption in CPS daycare for your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody thinks spring break tied to Easter is a good idea. I’m a devout Christian and dislike having that week as spring break. We care about celebrating Easter which means we have to come home early for spring break so as to avoid traveling on Easter. I think the problem with moving it is it’s harder to align with other jurisdictions. ‘Everyone’ probably could agree that spring break should be at the end of the 3rd quarter, but different school systems have different dates for the end of the 3rd quarter. Tying spring break to Easter makes to easier to align with neighboring jurisdictions.

Same. We're religious and traveled to family for Spring Break. I had to travel home on actual Easter instead of being able to spend it with family or attend Easter services. I would like Spring break to be any week but Easter week actually.

Why isn't Easter weekend the first weekend of Spring break?

It makes the most sense to align it with the end of 3rd quarter, honestly. Then it's fixed. Ideally winter break could align with the end of the semester, but there's SO much history tying it to Christmas nationwide I think you'd have to move the whole calendar to make that happen.

At this point it's not even about tying it to Christmas but matching the same time that all your family and relatives have off from work and school, even those in other parts of the country and much of the world. That's the week my work is shut down. That's the week that work slows down for my husband and he can take time off. That's the week that cousins are available for a visit. It's a time the whole country steps back. You can't just randomly choose a different set of weeks.

Exactly!!

Culturally in the US (religion aside) the week from just before Christmas through January 2nd is the week to 10 days that the entire nation collectively takes a break, shuts down and celebrates with family.

If you don't like it, there are plenty of countries that do this at other times of the year.

It is amazing that anyone is trying to argue against closing schools that week.

Even in culturally diverse Fairfax County, 80% or more of the population celebrates Christmas, likely higher when you include completely secular households.

There would be almost no teachers, virtually no school support staff or bus drivers (majority hispanics, so likely Christian Catholics) and fewer than 20% of the students in attendance the week of Christmas.

Anyone saying that FCPS should decouple winter break from Christmas is a completely unserious, culturally illiterate troll.

I'm new to this conversation. I just don't think two weeks off are necessary. The week before Christmas and NY are fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way, I love the days off and what they represent. Most secondary parents like them, whether they care about the holidays off or not.

Good to know you don't value education. Most. parents and teacher do.

EWTF are you talking about. The number of instruction days don't change. If you really value education, your kid would use these extra days to study.

I suspect what you are really upset by is the disruption in CPS daycare for your children.

Well, you're suspicions are completely wrong. Don't need child care, couldn't care less about it.

I want my kid in school 5 days a week, not taking off every random day. Your comment about the "number of instruction days" shows how little you think about this problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is thinking about the low income and ESL students who need consistent support to make progress against their educational goals.

You think you are, but have no research and the research that is out there says it doesn’t matter WHEN, but it does matter how many hours.

Show us that research. There is no research that says hours, no matter how incinsistently applied, is the same as a consistent schedule. You're misinterpreting research on alternative schedules.

I already did in at least of these threads. The main research said 180 days is 180 days and the TIME in school matters over placement of the days.
All other research about extending the school year and adding breaks is mixed. Feel free to find the link I already posted in an easy to watch PBS segment or do more research yourself and post that.

I believe the study was comparing a traditional 9-10 month calendar with a year round calendar. I don’t believe any study has been performed where 180 days were randomly selected to hold school over the course of a year to prove time in school mattered over placement of days. Traditional and full year calendars still have consistent 4-5 day school weeks. It’s the distribution of longer breaks that changes.

I think a distribution of longer breaks is what would be desired. I'm in Loudoun and my kids have tomorrow off. WHY? Why wasn't this moved to last Monday to give kids 6 days off for spring break. Why just randomly choose a Friday after kids have already been off the whole week before?

Fcps says hold my beer.

Fcps kids had the Monday after spring break off, the Friday after spring break off, AND an O day (no tests or performances) on April 16th for Theravada New Year, a buddhist holiday tied to the moon not celebrated in all forms of buddhism for a religion that is not practiced in any significant numbers in the US and in the low single digitis in Fairfax County.

Fairfax County is full of people who have lived overseas in countries where Christians and westerners are a minority, where our holidays, including Christmas are nominally recognized and not at all celebrated, where our families have had to go to work and school for important holidays in our western culture, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, and where the breaks are inconveniently aligned (for westerners) to holidays like Lunar New Year instead of Christmas and our 12/31-1/1 New Year. We learn to roll with it, because it makes sense for the majority.

If the smaller groups have holidays that significantly affect student attendance, then that is one thing. But most of the teacher workdays don't make calendar sense because they are actually scheduled to coincide with and mask/hide religious days, randomly placed on obscure religious holidays not celebrated by the vast majority of our northern Virginia population, and clustered around academically critical times like April before AP exams and SOL testing or at the end of first semester at the last stretch of good weather before snow days hit. The fake teacher workdays hiding religious holidays put education on the back burner for virtue signalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is thinking about the low income and ESL students who need consistent support to make progress against their educational goals.

You think you are, but have no research and the research that is out there says it doesn’t matter WHEN, but it does matter how many hours.

Show us that research. There is no research that says hours, no matter how incinsistently applied, is the same as a consistent schedule. You're misinterpreting research on alternative schedules.

I already did in at least of these threads. The main research said 180 days is 180 days and the TIME in school matters over placement of the days.
All other research about extending the school year and adding breaks is mixed. Feel free to find the link I already posted in an easy to watch PBS segment or do more research yourself and post that.

I believe the study was comparing a traditional 9-10 month calendar with a year round calendar. I don’t believe any study has been performed where 180 days were randomly selected to hold school over the course of a year to prove time in school mattered over placement of days. Traditional and full year calendars still have consistent 4-5 day school weeks. It’s the distribution of longer breaks that changes.

The researcher who did the study went i. PBS news hour and said it didn’t matter how you get the 180 days, it was the number of hours that matters.

Because of emergencies days and snow days it would be hard to get a study that can accurately show much more than that with a large enough sample size to make a correlation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way, I love the days off and what they represent. Most secondary parents like them, whether they care about the holidays off or not.

Good to know you don't value education. Most. parents and teacher do.

EWTF are you talking about. The number of instruction days don't change. If you really value education, your kid would use these extra days to study.

I suspect what you are really upset by is the disruption in CPS daycare for your children.

Well, you're suspicions are completely wrong. Don't need child care, couldn't care less about it.

I want my kid in school 5 days a week, not taking off every random day. Your comment about the "number of instruction days" shows how little you think about this problem.

Why? Seriously, why do you think a 5 day week is important? Before labor laws we had a 6 day week. Why not that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way, I love the days off and what they represent. Most secondary parents like them, whether they care about the holidays off or not.

Good to know you don't value education. Most. parents and teacher do.

EWTF are you talking about. The number of instruction days don't change. If you really value education, your kid would use these extra days to study.

I suspect what you are really upset by is the disruption in CPS daycare for your children.

Well, you're suspicions are completely wrong. Don't need child care, couldn't care less about it.

I want my kid in school 5 days a week, not taking off every random day. Your comment about the "number of instruction days" shows how little you think about this problem.

Why? Seriously, why do you think a 5 day week is important? Before labor laws we had a 6 day week. Why not that?

DP. A five day week is important for lots of reasons. I was an elementary teacher and it is disruptive to have odd days off here and there.

Most classes follow a schedule. This means that the "specials" (music, art, pe, etc) get thrown off. Frequent Mondays off, mean that some kids get cheated out of a special. Same with other isolated days. Early release also throws a monkey wrench into the schedule.

And, not only does it throw off the specials, it can also affect the kids who have IEPs and have special help on a schedule.

And, it affects the regular academic scheduling within a class.

It is extremely disruptive for the students and their families.
Not to mention people taking extra days off to travel, because "after all, they are already missing Friday, so we'll take Thursday, as well."

[Anonymous]

It's the same number of days off, just rearranged. Summer is shorter. This is actually better for learning loss. Also, Friday is staff planning day, not religious holiday. It says so on the calendar. Teachers need time to plan or your kids can sit in class all day every day and they won't learn anything because we won't have any time to plan decent lessons.