This is What Passes for "Logic" in Wisconsin Schools?

Is this all grade schools? Because in high school and middle school we had periods. And not every one had the same class last period. So one high school student may have 7 minutes added to last period French while the other has 7 minutes added to last period biology. Ummmm...that doesn't make sense. Sounds to me this is a budget reasoning. It's probably cheaper to have classed 7 minutes longer being that the building is already open, the lights are already on and the teachers are already there. Rather then open the building, turn on the electricity and bring in the teachers for extra days.

Sounds as if Wisconsin is taking lessons from Florida. Back a few years ago when they had to close the schools due to Hurricanes they decided to make up the days this way as well. All it did was mess up every one's schedule. It doesn't make up for the days. My thought would be like you, get rid of some of the excess days off that they give. I know here every time I turn around they seem to have a three day weekend. No that would make too much sense so instead they tack on an extra seven or ten minutes per day like that really accomplishes anything.

ParaTed remember new math 7times6 could mean anything as long as their self-esteem improves. I do not know what goes on between the ears of a Liberal. In the case of Wisconsin Super Liberal. The race to find how Liberal you can go seem to be happening in Wisconsin. I do not know about you but I would like to go inside a Liberal head one day just to see if they even have a brain. I cannot wait to see the responses I get from that comment.

It doesn't make sense to me, it would seem a few extra saturdays of class would be more effective. Maybe in the future they should plan more snow days...so they don't have this problem.

Government agencies are known for valuing quantity over quality. It's always about numbers, not people.

Thisis a little odd that is for sure. what on earth could be learned in just seven minutes. why not tack on an hour instead so thechildren could learnsomething in that time and make up what they had lost in missed lessons.

para Another good point. You are forgetting one thing and that is the schools must deal with the Department of Public Instruction and the and the bean counter they employ. As Professor Henry Higgins mention in his song about women(no offense ladies) "Logic never enters their head". They had a rule that said you could not fail a student for Unexcused absence. One legal person with DPI told me that they would not object if you failed a student for being in the hospital and not getting the work done, but you could not fail a student for skipping classes. DPI tells the Administrators that they have to have so many minutes to receive state aid. You could have movies every day and it would count. The Administrators have to do what DPI, the School Board, and Unions want. School Boards don't want parents mad a them and the teachers don't want to make up extra days. Who cares about the needs of the students?

I agree with you. That really sounds screwed up to me. I wonder where their brains are, or if they even have brains, for that matter. Schools sure have gotten nutty since I graduated 8 years ago.

I agree with you. This is beyond dumb. Do they think the teachers are really going to TEACH more in 7 whole minutes? I think parents should start making some noise to the school board there.

That is the daftest thing I have ever heard! There does not seem to be a point to that at all!

if they do add days on to the end of the year, those days would probably come after final exams, in which case they would be pointless. there are 2 types of scheduling that i know of here in florida, period and block. period scheduling gives you seven 45 minute classes with 5 minutes between to change classes and a half hour for lunch. with this you can get up to 7 credits a year, cause you have 7 year long classes. then there is block scheduling, where you have 4 90 minute classes, 5 minutes between blocks to change classes, and a half hour for lunch. the extra time is made up by having less class changes and so less wasted time. every class is only 1 semester long and so you can earn up to 8 credits a year. this is obviously a better system since you can get more credits, yet it isnt adopted everywhere because other people think that its not the best way to do things. if adding 7 minutes on to each day is the way the school board thinks is best for your kids, maybe it is? you dont have all the statistics and studies and whatnot that they do, nor the experience. it would be my opinion that a happy kid is a learning kid and i think an extra 7 minutes a day is a lot more pleasing than a few extra days and its quite probable that the kids would learn more efficiently in this sort of environment.

I moved out of Wisconsin for more reasons that one. Their intelligence certainly didn't aid in convincing me to stay!

Hello Para...I m from up the road in Wisconsin and we have to make up only one full day. Now our city is well known for "the schools will not close" and for years this has been a fact so the most intelligent administration did not even factor a snow day into this years school. Every other for as long as I can remember the years had a day scheduled as Snow Make up day. If there were no snow days the kids would have an extra day of spring break. I guess it would be so horrible if the kids went to school one more day than they had to. I had heard about 7 minutes added on but our district decided that the kids would come back for one day after graduating. Which in some ways is logical since we do our graduating on a thursday but come on would you want to go do one more day after recieving your diploma??? I don't think I would and I loved going to school. Of course we are also the same district that has been fighting the whole start classes after labor day. We start classes on a Thursday go friday and then have a 3 day weekend. I guess we don't want to wear out the kids right away with something like school so we ease them in.