People will just take their children out of school anyway, and staff will quit for other jobs. It works out fine actually. |
Right, but you didn't ask for the day off, did you? Like this day off did not stem from a group of people actively lobbying for it, it was just given to us. |
What’s your point? I actually do believe people lobbied for it here after some other districts were off for Diwali. And good they did. A good portion of the Asian population here is South Asian, most of whom are Hindu. I love how inclusive Fairfax is and really cannot understand being angry about this. I really don’t hear about people upset about this in real life, just here. |
There's lot of reasons to be angry about all the added days and not just Diwali in particular. I can't see so many days off being good for education in general, can't see how parents can afford to take days off from work or find childcare either. |
| I think there is probably a way to accommodate most cultural/religious holidays AND have kids in school for more five-day weeks. |
+1 we are in MCPS and I don't think Diwali was even the reason for the day off on Monday but yes we were very happy about it and enjoyed observing the holiday. I don't mind days off for other religious holidays either. My ES kid goes to aftercare or I take the day off if we want to do something. |
You should get our of your bubble. And educating students should take priority over being "inclusive*. |
They’re being educated the same amount of time! If you are so worried about that, you should lobby for year-round school. So much brain drain after summer. A day here or there doesn’t matter. I’m not in a bubble. I’m talking about my school, my community, my county. |
DP Ok so lets agree that the number of educational hours in a year is the same under any system. Do kids learn more/better with a ton of random breaks, including mid school week or with regular 5 day weeks? There's studies with 4 day weeks but random days off? How the heck is any working family supposed to be able to take care of kids on random days off? |
The problem isn't Diwali. It's one day. But yeah, FCPS being 3 to 4 days per week half the school year IS a freaking weird problem. Seems to be an administration problem, not Hindu, Christian, Muslim. I am sorry any working moms have to juggle that all. |
. The calendar came out ages ago. This was not a surprise. There was plenty of time to plan. |
| Exactly. The calendar is now out literally years in advance. AND the number of school days is state mandated and observed, it's just that less days off are clustered in summer break. I wish people would stop freaking out and make a plan. |
Like plan school to be closed 1 to 2 days every other week? Sure, tons of nannies want to work only 1-2 days, every other week, with the days of the week changing. |
| LOL at the one parent that isn't happy to have their kids home for Diwali. Sorry for those kids! |
| Teaching is exhausting - there is so much to do and so much multi-tasking that goes on as we try to meet everyone’s needs. As a teacher I love having these extra days off. I use them to get a lot of planning done and it gives me some breathing room, so I’m not always running around desperately trying to keep up. There is certainly not enough time given to us to plan, but these various holidays are inadvertently helping. I’ve heard that teachers in some other countries are given much more time to plan than teachers in the U.S. are given. Planning and consulting with colleagues are so important, but we’re “on” so much of the time. We need more down time to plan and get things right. |