Longer School Days? Have they gone insane?

[mattkime]

The school systems definitely has problems and the majority of them start at home. Plenty of kids manage to get good educations while others float through. Yes, most of it has to do with parenting.

>>compared to the EVER SHRINKING number of hours the public system has

I have no idea where you live but in most areas of the country school years are getting longer.

Yes elmo, kids don't like going to school, but thats nothing more than an indication that you're not beating them enough.

[voodoopenguin]

[quote davester]

Interesting. Is it a regional thing? I went to school near Portsmouth in Hampshire. Public education. My recollection is 3 weeks, because our family would head out on a camping holiday the second we got out, and I'd return to school the day after we got back. Also, we weren't released until 4:30 pm each day. It was an incredible (good) shock moving to the US. Suddenly summer vacation was 3 full months and school was released at 2:30 pm. It felt like an all year vacation.

Not regional, would be the same all over the UK. Sometimes the exact dates would differ by a few days around the country but the overall time in school would be the same over the year and six weeks was and still is the norm for the summer.

4.30 finish could be correct, I used to end at 4.10 but started the day at 8.45. Certainly everyone I know who was schooled in the US is amazed at the length of time our children spend there each day but then historically our children were then further ahead in their education because of it. Not sure if that is still the case.

They are thinking of cutting the summer holiday length by creating a four term school year but they would still keep it at four weeks.

I have to say it is very, very unlikely that you only had three weeks in the summer, it would be almost unique in Britain. I can say that you might not be alone in having false memories from your childhood. Very common and I'm not immune to it myself. You believe something for years to be true then find out much later that it couldn't possibly have happened. A bit unnerving, makes you wonder what else is not 'as you remember'!

[kap]

[quote elmo3]

[quote Kap]I agree with you that one parent should stay home for the sake of their children's well-being if the family could afford it. However, there are parents, especially single parents, who have to take on jobs that barely pay the rent.
Yes, but please don't fall into the trap of trotting out the extreme situation to try to disprove the general situation. Grateful11 is completely right in that family priorities are screwed up, and those people need to hear his message. He isn't aiming at the truly poor. He's aiming at those who THINK they're "poor" because they otherwise couldn't afford the more expensive house, the Lexuses, and the 84" plasma and "home theater" system.
No, I am not making excuses after all I am working as an instructional aid at a state funded all day daycare center. I daily see some of the self-proclaimed poor parents showing up at the school with their BMWs, Lexuses and Cadillac Escalades. YOu should hear what the children saying about the latest home electronics they have in their subsidized apartments!

No doubts, there are children who will succeed under the direst of circumstances due to good parenting skills. Knowing that and having the utmost respect from the parents make teaching worthwhile. Of course, better pay would certainly help. So many teachers cannot afford housing in CA even with the housing assistance programs created for them specifically.

Kap

[walscobry]

Elmo:

Because we should not be working that hard or long. They (at least I do) just might be smart enough to know that we COULD be having the majority of our work done for us (machines) but we seem to like to allow others (a hand full of religious idiots) to run our lives and invents total stupid shit like tokenized global economic slavery and an insane canon of laws.

But then lets continue to live in the dark ages and pretend that all around is not arbitrary but fixed in place by the almighty higher power of some dork that believes in the existence of super natural beings or at least is just greedy enough to make life a living hell for most of the world so they can live the good life. Makes me wish there really was a hell.

And to answer the question in the post headline. YES THEY ARE INSANE. THEY HAVE BEEN AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE SO UNTIL YOU HELP STOP THEM!

[mattkime]

>>4.30 finish could be correct, I used to end at 4.10 but started the day at 8.45.

Apparently Wisconsin school districts have longer days. We started at 7:45 am and ended at 3:15pm. Then again, Wisconsin has an excellent public school system.

[kap]

Private schools are not bounded by state laws hence they are powerful in setting precedence, i.e.the children are not allowed to attend school unless one of their parents devotes a minimum amount of time participating in the classroom and school activities.

Kap

[elmo3]

[quote kap]Private schools are not bounded by state laws hence they are powerful in setting precedence, i.e.the children are not allowed to attend school unless one of their parents devotes a minimum amount of time participating in the classroom and school activities.

Kap
By definition, any parent who chooses to pay for private school is participating, at minimum, to a MUCH higher degree than the average public school parent.

The private schools may insist on participation, but it isn't something that they have to chase after. It's already there.

[bfd]

Private schools have one big advantage over public schools. They can be selective. (and look who they select)

[kap]

I don't know about private middle schools and high schools but the privately owned/run pre-K and kindergartner that I know of are more like a children dumping grounds. Parents feel that since they pay they don't have to participate in school activities even for the good of their children. Their attitude is "Hey, that is what I am paying the teachers and their aids to do! Besides, I am too busy making load of money to involve with my children's lives."

Kap

[Schpark]

I thought this message forwarded from my sister (a teacher) fits in here pretty well....

(Yes it is false
http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/palisades.htm
but the contents are not too far off from reality.)

SCHOOL ANSWERING MACHINE
(This is hilarious - no wonder some people were offended!)

This is the message that the Pacific Palisades High School (California)

staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering

machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school.



This came about because they implemented a policy requiring Students and

parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing

homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their

children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those

children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete

enough schoolwork to pass their classes.

The outgoing message:

_____________________________________________________________

"Hello you have reached the automated answering service of [X] school. In

order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen

to all the options before making a selection:

* To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

* To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2

* To complain about what we do - Press 3

* To swear at staff members - Press 4

* To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your

newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

* If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

* If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone -Press 7

* To request another teacher, for the third time this year -Press 8

* To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

* To complain about school lunches - Press 0

* If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable

and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that

it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and

have a nice day!

* If you want this in Spanish, you must be in the wrong country.