School calendar sucks
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Anonymous
Christmas is also a secular and cultural federal holiday in the US. It is the biggest holiday in the US, bigger than Thanksgiving, in case you haven't noticed. The secular, non religious, non Christian Christmas "season" stretches from shortly after Halloween until January 1. A tremendous part of our consumer economy is centered on Christmas, more than on any other holiday on our calendar. Christmas is part of the fiber of American culture, not just religious traditions but secular traditions. It is one of the original federal holidays. FCPS could not have school on Christmas or Christmas Eve because they would not have enough students or teachers to run the school. Throwing out "but but but... Christmas" is a dumb argument that has no substance behind it and shows almost no understanding of American secular cultural history. |
Anonymous
Then we can't tie any days off to religious holidays. Winter Break would be 2 weeks in January and we'd go to school on Christmas. That is what you are suggesting. Christmas is a federal holiday and so is New Years so they wouldn’t have school those days regardless. I don’t see anything wrong with tying winter break to Christmas, but the length has gotten out of hand. But that’s what people want I guess because they use the time and often another week after that in the new year to fly back to their home countries when it’s not a million degrees in, say, India and Thailand and what not. But just looking at this year’s calendar, I know a lot of districts would have them go back to school on January 2nd. Last year was a juggling act on when to hold the break with Christmas and New Year's Day on Mondays but this year they are on Wednesdays so there should be 2 neat weeks as many people would skip Jan 2 & 3. |
Anonymous
Christmas is a federal holiday and so is New Years so they wouldn’t have school those days regardless. I don’t see anything wrong with tying winter break to Christmas, but the length has gotten out of hand. But that’s what people want I guess because they use the time and often another week after that in the new year to fly back to their home countries when it’s not a million degrees in, say, India and Thailand and what not. But just looking at this year’s calendar, I know a lot of districts would have them go back to school on January 2nd. Last year was a juggling act on when to hold the break with Christmas and New Year's Day on Mondays but this year they are on Wednesdays so there should be 2 neat weeks as many people would skip Jan 2 & 3. I attended Catholic school growing up. We always had Christmas break from the day December 23rd through January 1st, EXCEPT the years when Christmas and NY Day fell on a Wednesday. On Wednesday years, we got the whole two weeks off. We were always so excited when we had a Wednesday year. |
Anonymous
This is not even close to the reason for all the holidays. We never use to have every possible religious holiday off. They only started to do it to make everything even because if we recognize one religious holiday the of course we have to include everyone and recognize them all. it has gotten completely our of hand. |
Anonymous
So what? Don't book an outdoor camp during a winter holiday. There are plenty of indoor childcare options. I just don't understand why people can't realize that there are only 180 days of school, regardless of the calendar. I would prefer 3 3-week quarter breaks and a 5 week summer. But I don't get to have it. Others want a 10-11 week summer, but they don't get to have that either. |
Anonymous
FCPS can't control when a holiday happens, but they can certainly choose not to take the day off. There should be no explicitly religious holidays on the public school calendar. Then we can't tie any days off to religious holidays. Winter Break would be 2 weeks in January and we'd go to school on Christmas. That is what you are suggesting. Nope, and Christmas isn't a school holiday. |
Anonymous
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Honestly the answer is to ignore the calendar, make family plans that suit you, and insist that your child be permitted to make up any missed work. Yes call and email your representatives on the school board, yes absolutely ask for sanity when they’re running again, yes hold them accountable for things like adding these egregious early dismissal days…
But then just do your thing. There will be no consequences for prioritizing your families needs. |
Anonymous
yeah next year is from 8/18 to 6/17 with a bazillion days off in between |
Anonymous
Totally agree. The long winter break is totally unnecessary. |
Anonymous
Then we can't tie any days off to religious holidays. Winter Break would be 2 weeks in January and we'd go to school on Christmas. That is what you are suggesting. Nope, and Christmas isn't a school holiday. They tie spring break to Easter and need to stop. It's stupid. Easter is not the sort of holiday that people travel to visit their family for. Let's have school breaks tied to the end of the quarter. Winter Break in the middle of the quarter is stupid. Spring break in the middle of the quarter is stupid, not to mention flights are so expensive that we can't travel. |
Anonymous
| We could solve a lot of problems by having a shorter winter break. It's so unnecessary. |
Anonymous
The two week winter break was a teacher demand years ago. Wonder if that’s still a priority for them. |
Anonymous
What problem are you trying to solve? Do you want a longer summer? Many of us are pushing for a shorter summer. |
Anonymous
If they want a shorter summer they need to commit to it. Summer break, 5 weeks from roughly July 4th through sometime in early to mid August. And give us actual LONGER vacations throughout the year instead of this “3 day weekend here, Wednesday off there” nonsense. At least then we could do some travel in the off seasons. |
Anonymous
There's a strong correlation between disliking summer and being an incredibly boring person. Way too many of you around here. |