Back to School in Early August?!
By angel_smiles
@Lolaze (5093)
St. Louis, Missouri
August 3, 2015 9:28pm CST
When I was in school, we got out before Memorial Day and went back - at the earliest - the week before Labor Day. It gave us the majority of 3 months off school for the summer. Today, I found out that the local public school district which got off the week after this past Memorial Day starts back in session next Monday - August 10. The summer seems to get shorter for kids each year, especially those in underperforming school districts.
People in the education system think that longer school years (and even longer school days...elementary school students don't get off school until 4:30pm here) are the answer to make kids learn better. I think that if you don't have good teachers, you can keep kids in school 24/7/365 and it won't matter.
When do kids go back to school in your area? Do you think their summer break is too short?
1 response
@StLouisMetroTutoring (678)
• St. Peters, Missouri
18 Aug 15
Surprisingly, the number of school days per year is just a few more than it was in 1990. Schools are trying different schedules, like year-round, to reduce or even eliminate the "Summer Slide." With 3 solid months off school, it's not unusual for students to lose several months of learning. When they return to school in September, the first month or two has to be spent in review. The idea is that if we still have the same number of days off but spread throughout the school year, children wouldn't forget as much, there would be far less time needed for review and students would learn more without actually increasing number of days. So a lot of schools are taking off longer for Winter Break - often 2 weeks and take a lot of other 3 and 4 day weekends but go until very late May or early June and start back up again in August. Now that most schools are air-conditioned, this is now a possibility.
As a teacher, I feel it too. I used to be able to take 4 or more complete weeks off school before going back and getting the room ready. Of course it was almost non-stop once the year started. Now, after the kids are out, end of school year meetings and taking down the classroom, I'm lucky to get a full week before hitting the stores to find new classroom decorations, setting up the room, before school year meetings and then starting the school year.
teacher of 30+ years
