Reply to Half-days on Wednesdays!?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am 55 years old and was educated in what was considered a very fine public school system in Massachusetts. We had half-day Wednesdays every week from 1st thru 6th grade and every other Wednesday in 7th and 8th grade. It was considered teacher development time, and so normal and routine that it was completely unremarkable. And yes, both my parents WOTH fulltime.[/quote]

Was a large portion of your school system considered low income? Did a large portion not attend virtual school for an entire year?  Was a large portion of your school system already below grade level? That is what DCPS is dealing with here.  I went to a fine school system in NY-  every year kids from my HS (250 kids per grade) went to all the Ivies, MIT, etc. I would never advocate that the systems at that school be used in DCPS, it’s apples and oranges.[/quote]

Precisely.

Maybe you're trying to make us feel better with "I had half days once a week, and I turned out fine!" but it isn't helpful. There's probably a reason DCPS hasn't done half days before (or at least in a long time). Considering doing so now after the year we've had is mind-boggling.[/quote]

I think a major reason DCPS has never tried it before is that there is a cadre of DCPS parents who are super intense and combative and will absolutely lose their minds if schools *consider* doing anything that does not mesh with their strict mental image of what school is and should be. Granted, the teachers also often have this extremely unproductive attitude, as do many people at Central. It's a serious problem with the district.

And yes, it's also a big reason why we had no in person school this year. We had teachers dig in their heals on "only when it's safe" but then we also had administrators and parents dig in too. There were ideas floating around that would have gotten kids in school, at least part time, and offered teachers more safety. Namely, outdoor school. But people in this district don't know what to do with an outside the box idea like that. When we tried to propose it at our school, we were told 90 reasons it was "impossible" (most of which were actually addressable problems) and it never went anywhere and now here we are, a year later, with most kids not getting a single second of IPL this year.

Which is why, I beg of you: just wait to hear what the plan is for Wednesdays before deciding it's terrible. Could you stay open to the idea that it might be a good idea? We're talking about maybe 2 fewer hours of instruction, to be replaced by something else. Do you really believe that there is nothing as beneficial to your child as that two hours of instruction? Don't you want to find out what it might be before you bring the hammer down? Come on.[/quote]

DCPS literally just cancelled school for over a year.  So no, I don't think this has to do with a "cadre of DCPS parents" doing anything.  And no, I don't need to hear anything about this stupid plan before I reject it.  It reduces instructional time, is all I need to know.  There's nothing "innovative" about it.  You're naive.  [/quote]

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