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:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

I agree. And I'm not even a Christian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, no. One problem is that "floating holidays" or religious leave would cause a ton of operational issues. The other problem is that elementary parents are the only ones who are really bothered by the calendar. I'm a secondary teacher and it's not something anyone complains about. High schoolers and their parents love it because the kids can study for AP exams, visit colleges, and work on those days off. Middle schoolers are happy to have the chance to sleep in and are old enough to be left home unattended so the parents aren't rearranging their schedules.

+100! It's making me so mad that school board members are so ignorant they don't realize this is a handful of the usual loud mouth right winger elementary parents, and the rest of us don't want this. So now they are all posting about how proud they are to support this great cause, without having solicited any real input from the wider community and without having done a lick of research.

Idiots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

High school is to prepare kids for the real world. And in the real world, nearly everyone works 5 days weeks (or maybe 4, 10 hour days). Kids need to get used to the grind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

+100 thank you for speaking up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

Elementary school is seven years. More than half of FCPS.

And, as another PP said, school is part of prep for work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elem or are you encouraging the rat race? I teach at the college level and what I am seeing is that even my bright and high achieving students are acting like they constantly need a break. They can’t manage their timeentary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

Well high school teacher, what are you doing to help students feel like high school is less of a grind? Are you helping them understand that their self-worth and odds of future success do not completely hinge on the number of AP courses they take? Or are you helping perpetuate the rat race to nowhere?

I bet most of these kids have no idea how much time they’re wasting on their smart phones outside of school instead of being productive. And then they’re stressed out because they feel like they have so much work to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

dp. We don't have a consistent four day schedule right now, and even if we did, it's not clear we would be better off. First, the research isn't clear, e.g. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED653519. Second, the schools that do four day weeks are not like FCPS. They're largely in rural areas that use four day weeks to lure in better teachers. You can't assume that even if some schools do have success, moving to a four day week would have positive results also for FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

I think a lot of parents would be open to exploring that if it was consistent. There is lots of evidence on all sides of "what is best" academically but they all have consistency in common. If we went to a standard 4-day week, providers would add childcare, activities would schedule based on that and with the size of FCPS, I imagine many local employers would offer some sort of flex schedule. Right now, it's patch work which is awful for everyone.

I also can't imagine it helps kids who work to tell their boss "I can work one day a week, but it changes every week and there is no pattern to it." Consistency would be better for everyone.

[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.

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.

Are you talking about the Paul Thompson Oregon State study? He didn't research *inconsistent* school schedules or control for that. You're taking the conclusion that the number of hours matters as a baseline, and applying it overly broad, in a way that is not consistent with the research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

Elementary school is seven years. More than half of FCPS.

And, as another PP said, school is part of prep for work.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Why should kids have to work the same schedule as adults? Even many- most adults don’t work 5 days a week on a rigid schedule.
Telework means less commuting a few days a week. The government used to have more liberal policies where people could take every other Friday off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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."

I teach high school, and we think 4-day weeks are better. In fact, studies show that. We are losing kids left and right who just stop attending because they can't stand the grind and don't have enough time off to complete all the assignments. Plus, a lot of them work and that one day can make the difference between having enough food or not, and dropping out of high school or not. Funny how everyone in elementary doesn't realize there are other people out there with different needs than them.

Elementary school is seven years. More than half of FCPS.

And, as another PP said, school is part of prep for work.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Why should kids have to work the same schedule as adults? Even many- most adults don’t work 5 days a week on a rigid schedule.
Telework means less commuting a few days a week. The government used to have more liberal policies where people could take every other Friday off.

Maybe, because you want them to learn something?

[Anonymous]

Kids are still kids...even if we just consider 12-18 year olds, they shouldn't have to "work" a 5-day week just because most adults do. The schedule as it is is as complicated as adults make it. FCPS and local orgs could do more to offer meaningful and fun options for ES/MS students on the days off, and HS (and some MS) parents can make sure their kids use non-5-day-weeks to get work done. It should not be a crisis. Everyone who's raising the proof point of "5-day weeks and consistency help student achievement" should also look at data about how long summer breaks cause huge learning loss and are detrimental to student achievement.

[Anonymous]

School board voted down having school on Columbus Day, even though FCPS has more non-5-day weeks than any other large school district in the country

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are still kids...even if we just consider 12-18 year olds, they shouldn't have to "work" a 5-day week just because most adults do. The schedule as it is is as complicated as adults make it. FCPS and local orgs could do more to offer meaningful and fun options for ES/MS students on the days off, and HS (and some MS) parents can make sure their kids use non-5-day-weeks to get work done. It should not be a crisis. Everyone who's raising the proof point of "5-day weeks and consistency help student achievement" should also look at data about how long summer breaks cause huge learning loss and are detrimental to student achievement.

I think you are underestimating young people. I worked harder in school and at my sport at 16 than I could ever do now. I look back and wonder where I found the mental and physical energy. I am middle aged and tired now! I can't stay up late and get up early like I used to. I have so many more things on my mind as a working parent. I think it's better for most people to put their nose to the grindstone in their teens and twenties when they don't have anyone else depending on them. Then they can take their foot off the gas pedal a bit if they want to, because they've likely earned the right to some flexibility and choices. Teens are more capable than many parents these days want to believe. It's a relatively recent phenomenon to coddle them and I don't think it's helping.