Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't think you really understand how year round school works. It is not school for 52 weeks a year with no breaks. Here is a sample year round school schedule that has the exact same 180 days in it that is in the school year now.
In School 45 Days
Fall Break 15 Days
In School 30 Days
Thanksgiving Break 3 Days
In School 15 Days
Winter Break 15 Days
In School 45 Days
Spring Break 15 Days
In School 45 Days
Summer Break 30 Days
To be fair, we have no idea what would be proposed. I'm sure that year round school from state to state has some variations. It also doesn't address the fact that the school day would be longer, which I'm also opposed to for the same reasons (interference with after school work, sports, etc...). Basically this would destroy any chance for a high school student to gain valuable work (or even unpaid internship) experience over the summer because no one is going to hire a kid to work for 15 or 30 days at a clip. Also, what would this do to the shore economy since parents would have a 30 day window to rent a shore house for a week or two weeks? It would be a 30 day feast for the shore and the rest would be famine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adi from the Brunswicks
I had year round high school in India. It helped me a lot towards getting good grades in Engineering. That's what matters. Results.
I guess the only engineers employed in the U.S. currently are those who attended year round high school in India? By BIL and two of my good friends are engineers-one mechanical two civil, all three with good paying jobs, and they're all troglodytes like me who had summers off and went home when the bell rang at 3:00...imagine that...
I don't think you really understand how year round school works. It is not school for 5 days a week/52 weeks a year with no breaks. Here is a sample year round school schedule that has the exact same 180 days in it that is in the school year now.
In School 45 Days
Fall Break 15 Days
In School 30 Days
Thanksgiving Break 3 Days
In School 15 Days
Winter Break 15 Days
In School 45 Days
Spring Break 15 Days
In School 45 Days
Summer Break 30 Days
To be fair, we have no idea what would be proposed. I'm sure that year round school from state to state has some variations. It also doesn't address the fact that the school day would be longer, which I'm also opposed to for the same reasons (interference with after school work, sports, etc...). Basically this would destroy any chance for a high school student to gain valuable work (or even unpaid internship) experience over the summer because no one is going to hire a kid to work for 15 or 30 days at a clip. Also, what would this do to the shore economy since parents would have a 30 day window to rent a shore house for a week or two weeks? It would be a 30 day feast for the shore and the rest would be famine.
I guess the only engineers employed in the U.S. currently are those who attended year round high school in India? By BIL and two of my good friends are engineers-one mechanical two civil, all three with good paying jobs, and they're all troglodytes like me who had summers off and went home when the bell rang at 3:00...imagine that...
The states that have year-round school stop it at the high school level and go back to summer break then. They did this mainly because of sports. So maybe a kid would have to wait until 15 to start working summers, depending when they start high school, but kids younger than that generally don't work to that degree anyway.
The states that have year-round school stop it at the high school level and go back to summer break then. They did this mainly because of sports. So maybe a kid would have to wait until 15 to start working summers, depending when they start high school, but kids younger than that generally don't work to that degree anyway.
That at least seems a little more sensible, but I still think it's a bad idea. How long is the school day in these other states, and where are you getting this information by the way, I'd like to look at it myself. Basically my philosophy is that if ain't broke... There are broken school systems in this state. They're by and large located in the major cities. Fix them and leave ours alone.
There are various proposals, but many that I've seen propose something like four weeks on, two weeks off through the summer at least. I had a summer job starting the summer between 8th and 9th grade and worked every summer after that until I started working full time. Whenever I applied for summer jobs, the first question was, "Are you available all summer?" If the answer was no, you didn't get the job. That doesn't even take into account sports, camps, and other activities.
I worked pretty much year round once i was 16. waiter at a Friendly's. I also did seasonal job at the local ski resort, and worked summer Saturdays at the moto-cross race track. What's min working age in NJ? I don't think most pre-9th graders can work now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Badfish740
I'm not sure how or why that is the school system's problem. Schools assign summer reading and other activities, and parents/students are free to pursue learning opportunities and tutoring throughout the summer if they'd like or decide they need it.
Well...nothing is the school system's problem, if you want to look at it that way. Why do we care about truancy? Why do we care about public education at all? Summer reading is about it as far as summer assignments go, and we all know that's not the same as instruction-based learning. And yes, parents are free to pursue learning opportunities that they can afford, if they'd like or decide they need it. But that's not the point here. The point is, improving our public education to compete with the places that are beating us. that's fine if you don't agree it should be done...but whether or not it would improve out students, I think the answer is pretty straightforward.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Badfish740
Even if they lengthen the school day? Most high school athletes (and middle school) don't get home until 7:00 p.m. when their sports are in season. Most after school jobs expect students to be there by 3:30-4:00.
This originally began as a solution to the problems of urban schools. Kids in inner city districts are practically being raised by their schools because they don't have parents who are capable of raising them. They feed the kids breakfast, lunch, and dinner, keep them in school longer so they're not roaming the streets, and help them with their homework. "Summer learning loss" is also big issue for these districts. Those of us who live in towns where the schools are good and the parents are engaged don't need the state to raise our children, nor do we want it to.
When I participated in sports, I used to have to kill time from when school dismissed until practice started. I took advantage of that time and stayed after school with some teachers and did my homework.
After school jobs? is that a common thing? For all the people i knew in high school with jobs, few worked during the school week. And, again, we're still stuck on a tiny portion of the school 'career' here when discussing "jobs" during school.
"Parents are engaged" - those areas are usually the ones where engaged parents are sending their kids to after-care programs, effectively extending the school day until those "engaged" parents get home from work anyways.
It's not about the state raising our children...that argument is old. It's about improving education. If you don't want the state "raising our children" then homeschool.
That at least seems a little more sensible, but I still think it's a bad idea. How long is the school day in these other states, and where are you getting this information by the way, I'd like to look at it myself. Basically my philosophy is that if ain't broke... There are broken school systems in this state. They're by and large located in the major cities. Fix them and leave ours alone.
I would like to add -- the states who do have year round school -- are their schools faring better or worse then NJ public schools as a whole...
While many users do complain about some school districts in this state, as a whole, NJ is not doing bad.
These are states that already offer it, and most of them are not liberal states:
"According to the National Association for Year-Round Education, there are a number school districts throughout the nation that follow the year-round school calendar. These school districts are located in the following states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin."
exactly! this isn't a liberal/conservative thing really. i don't know why everything has to be broken down that way. i can see the arguments against it, for wanting more time at home, and such. but if you purely stick to the topic of if it improves students or not...the answers are out there. that doesn't mean we have to do it...NJ is already doing fairly well, compared to the other 49 states. But how are we doing compared to the world? Not that well. Not terrible, but there's room to improve. Why not take some existing known-effective approaches, and try them out?
I'd personally rather see full day K first, and maybe even pre-K, before seeing longer days and longer school year. and the critical years are the earlier years, so maybe they could not extend the year as much for junior high/high school...and then kids can do all the things the OP thinks are beneficial.
Ok, so now that we've established that there are more than a few folks on this board who are in support of year round school/extended day, how do we pay for:
The extended hours worked by teachers? Make arguments all you want about how they work part time already. There is no way Christie gets enough support to pass this without the NJEA's blessing, so they're going to get some concessions.
The air conditioning? If your motivation for year round school is better education you can't possibly expect kids to swelter in 90° heat while they're learning during the dog days of summer.
The massive overhaul of the entire system? Calendars, IT systems, payroll systems, and the list goes on, all revolve around 180 days straight and summers off.
How much of a property tax increase would you support? 5%? 10% 15% Remember that with maybe a few exceptions, the states that have done this already have totally different school funding structures that don't depend nearly as heavily on property taxes, plus many have county school districts as opposed to the insane patchwork system of 600+ fiefdoms in NJ.
I'm a numbers guy and ALL the statistics about year round school point to a positive academic outcome. Does little Johnny or Julie miss out on more hours at McDonalds, mowing lawns or more likely just hanging out with friends/enjoying leisure activities?...sure but the goal isn't to raise adults who think that it's ok to live at home until your 30 as long as you are enjoying yourself. That's what the current system has been producing and is why we are lagging other developed countries...see Millenials, who are the most underemployed group in decades, with questions.
i agree with you, but i disagree with taking a shot at millenials. yes, they are underemployed, but it's not due to their lack of skills or education, it's due to years of substantially slower job growth finally catching up to us. and it wasn't helped by a huge recession that caused many early boomers to stay on the job longer. that's a multi-faceted issue, and you're a numbers guy so I know you know that.
i'm not saying the generation is blameless, but the abuse the generation gets is uncalled for.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
By BIL and two of my good friends are engineers-one mechanical two civil, all three with good paying jobs, and they're all troglodytes like me who had summers off and went home when the bell rang at 3:00...imagine that...
