Reply to Will DCPS ignore snow days again in June?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]this is a really serious issue that no one pays attention to. our charter school doesnt come anywhere close to 180 days and no one cares. parents aren't paying attention and osse lets schools ignore the law. [/quote]

They are just waiting until someone sues. I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet by a family with a special needs child. [/quote]

I dont think parents realize their schools are doing it. They just assume the school is following the rules. [/quote]

This but there is also a contingent of parents who don't care and actually are happy when there is less school.

This group is larger when there is a debate over something like adding days to the school year for snow days. I remember tons of parents last year lobbying against the snow days because they had vacation plans right after school got out or "whatever it's not like kids learn anything the last week" or just not wanting to deal with school commutes for a couple more days. It's remarkable how many people just don't value education at all and view school as little more than a babysitting service or an annoying obligation. Depressing.[/quote]

Some might say that adding more days at the end of the school year is a babysitting service, too. You are clinging on to the extra days for what? Stop acting like this is unique to DCPS or modern education.[b] Everyone knows the month of June is a joke. [/b]You think you were reading an anthology and having socratic seminars in the 3rd grade on June 15th in the 80's? Stop acting like it's some kind of inequity and just say you need babysitting.[/quote]

Everyone does not know that. It's a defeatist attitude people adopt to justify not making any effort.

I personally think we should switch to year round school with seasonal breaks to avoid this BS.[/quote]

Is it though? Do you know how many year long parents complain about burning through their PTO? No camps, no programming? And the really rich just get to go on two week vacations every 6-8 weeks.

The system isn't perfect. No system is. It is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. I am sure DCPS will add on the extra days and the parents who already have plans will rage and continue with their life plans. And you will get to send your child to school so they don't miss out on their socratic seminar. [/quote]

If we switched to year round school there would be camps and programming during the seasonal breaks. Just like right now there are camps and programming in the summer. It would actually be easier to provide coverage. It's often hard to find camps in mid-August around here because a lot of them shut down by the 1st week of August. If we did shorter seasonal breaks instead of a long summer, it might actually be easier to have coverage because you'd only have to find 1-2 week coverage at a time instead of trying to find 8-10 weeks of childcare every summer.[/quote]

I assure you, you would find ways to complain about the nontraditional calendar. I taught in a school that had a nontraditional calendar in California and it was great. Great for a teacher. I loved all the breaks. But there were no camps or programming during the 2-3 weeks off. And you do realize that the non traditional calendar is also just 180 days? Except you don't get to benefit from ANY of the summer camps. Outdoor camps, sleepway camps. None of it. [/quote]

The suggestion for year round school was made to counter the argument that "June is worthless." So the idea is that even if the school year was the same number of days, it would be more productive if kids had regular longer breaks but a shorter summer break, resulting in fewer "worthless" days of school. Also the biggest argument in favor of year round school has always been that it reduces learning loss over the summer and results in better educated kids because they are learning on a continuous basis and don't have this huge gap every year and then have to spend the first month or two of school just reviewing content from the previous year.

Also, we are talking about DCPS here and there are tons of camps in DC to cover shorter breaks during the year. Some offered by DCPS and some offered by private companies. Our school has a spring break camp every year for families who don't travel and need childcare -- there are always plenty of spots available. Also the school year is loaded with random days off for professional development, end of term, grading, etc. There are lots of day camps that crop off for these days so I'm sure the same would be true for longer breaks. As a parent, I'd much rather have to find a weeklong camp four times a year than have to figure out childcare for one long summer AND for a bunch of random days during the year. Year round school would enable us to consolidate all those breaks into four midsize breaks that families could split between travel/family time and camps for kids.[/quote]

The nearing of any ending or break is a waste of time. You could have it once a year or 12 times a year. It's human nature. In schools, the anticipation of a break means...assessments. Why teach new material after an assessment and a few days before a three week break? You think year round schools don't have celebrations? Anknowledge holidays? Go on field trips? All the things you deem as a "waste of time" and probably not worthy of what makes schooling whole? Unless you work in medicine or on Wall Street, time and work production slows down in anticipation of holidays.

Also, there is whole economy built on summer travel and summer camps. This isn't a stubborn teacher union thing.[/quote]

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