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Traditional school calendar
History of a traditional school calendar
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Family vacations, pool memberships, and corn de-tasseling; these have been the experiences of traditional Midwestern summers. For centuries young American children have attended school during the winter months, during farming off seasons when their families could afford to be without them. Families have grown accustomed to a traditional school calendar that provides time for bonding throughout the year. Students have grown accustomed to an eight week break during the summer months where they are allowed to refresh their minds before returning for a new school year. Unfortunately, these traditional experiences and practices are now in jeopardy. In today’s race to improve student achievement, traditional school calendars have become a point of contention. Today more and more school districts and parents alike have begun to debate the pros and cons of an alternative school calendar. According to writer Vanessa St Gerard from The Education Digest, a traditional school year is defined as “large blocks of instruction with inter-spread week-long breaks, all culminating with a long summer break” (2007). This structure is most familiar to Americans today, however the new alternative schedule presents a variance in the time allocated for breaks throughout the school year. “During a modified school year, instruction periods typically are broken up into 45-or-60-day sessions with each of these being divided by breaks lasting three to four weeks” (St Gerard, 2007). In the alternative calendar, schools would still break for a summer session, but in most cases the break would consist of about five weeks rather than eight. While the calendars might differ in session times, they would both meet the federally mandated 180 days of ins... ... middle of paper ... ...l). Year-Round Schools Look Better All the Time. The Education Digest, 72(8), 56-58. Retrieved November 29, 2011, from Education Periodicals. (Document ID: 1253545861). Thomma, S. (2009). Politics. Obama Presses for Longer School Year | Seattle Times Newspaper. The Seattle Times | Seattle Times Newspaper. Retrieved December 01, 2011, from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008838703_schools11.html Werner, Erica. (2010, September 27). Obama: School Year Should Be Longer. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 01, 2011, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/28/obama-school-year-should-_n_741338.html UBIÑAS, L. A., & GABRIELI, C. (2011, August 22). Shortchanged by the Bell. New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/opinion/shortchanged-by-the-school-bell.html?_r=
One of the most talked about issues of schooling today, would be year round schooling. The program started as a new way to learn. The old way and still the way most schools calendar is set up was designed the way it is due to harvest times, when the United States was a farming country. There have been many studies done, and some schools have already implemented this program. The studies and the schools that have gone ahead and implemented the program have seen both good things and bad things in their findings. There will be both pros and cons for every issue, and some may see pros and cons differently. Year round schooling is the idea of attending school for an entire year, not all 365 days, but continuously throughout the year. Year round schooling operates on a different schedule to incorporate the same amount of classroom time as a typical school schedule has. The only difference is that the breaks are shorter, but there are more of them in year round schooling. This is the basis of most of the arguments for and against year round schooling.
The BC Ministry of Education recently allowed for flexibility in how school districts choose to organize their school calendars. BC School Districts currently follow a traditional school year calendar with students attending school approximately 190 days, most with a two week break in winter and spring and two months off during the summer months. “This model was very practical when the school calendar was designed to accommodate children with the needs of an agricultural economy” (qtd in Webb 5), and can be “described by some as outdated and irrelevant in today’s society” (Winter 401). A balanced school year calendar, also referred to as a modified school year and year round school, would maintain the same number of instructional days, but would evenly distribute breaks throughout the year. The literature and research available on the balanced school year is mostly American, with a few Canadian sources.
Students now have the opportunity to work another day to save for their future. The four-day school week also provides much more time for these children to spend and enjoy time with friends, and family, as well as enjoying extracurricular activities. There is a lovely environment for the children at the school and an extra day for the instructors to gain knowledge and a better understanding of their curriculum. The schools will be saving a varying amount of money that could be used in case of an emergency with money of any kind. Whether it is an emergency funding program, or money to fund an extracurricular activity. In conclusion, the four-day school week has proven itself to be a very effective form of education that Colby Public Schools most certainly should switch to within the coming
They change how the March Break looks as a break compared to the Winter Break, so it would be like from an enjoyable March Break to just a couple of days off school. If teachers are willing to give up a week for March Break, they might as well just give up another week.... ... middle of paper ... ... March is the arrival of a beautiful season, spring.
Wildavsky (1999) says, “[The National Association for Year-Round Education] defines a year-round school as an institution with fewer than eight weeks of summer vacation” (para. 7). According to another article (1997), “In 1986, there were about 400 year-round schools in 16 states. By 1997, the number increased to 2400 in 41 states” (National Association for Year-Round Education, para. 4). Additionally, Hunter (1998) adds, “…the U.S. National Association for Year-Round Schools stated that year-round schooling has grown by 500 percent in the past decade” (para. 4). These schools are capable of meeting the needs of our students, teachers, and administrators.
When we think of year-round schooling, we automatically think of no summer vacation. Across the country, schools are changing their schedules to a year-round curriculum. A year-round curriculum means that students and teachers no longer have two months of summer vacation. Some parents and teachers have enjoyed the year-round schedule, others do not approve. There are some schools that are implementing the year-round program to have more consistent instruction, while other schools are doing it in order to save money. Each schedule has its own pros and cons.
Imagine your self in the middle of July the sun is shining the birds are chirping with no clouds in the sky and you are sitting in a classroom with no air condition. All you can think about is going outside to play but you have to learn. This is what would happen if schools turned to year round schooling. So year round schooling is a bad idea.
Dixon, A. (2011). Focus on the alternative school calendar: year-round school programs and update on the four-day school week. Retrieved from Southern Regional Education Board website: http://publications.sreb.org/2011/11S01_Alt_Cal.pdf
Today however, the role of the modern public school is beginning to change. The United States is no longer an agrarian society. As a result, people feel that the traditional school calendar is too old-fashioned a...
First of all, the year-round schedule doesn’t add any more school days than the traditional school calendar, it just distributes vacation time more evenly and frequently. Likewise, if your school ends up adapting year-round schooling, breaks will become shorter but you still get the same amount of days on vacation overall. After summer break, teachers can
...eved that the year-round calendar will provide the frequent breaks needed to keep students refreshed and motivated which in turn might result in a higher attendance and graduation rates. In the article "Is Summer Vacation Bad for You?" it is stated that “Experts say this type of calendar has clear benefits. With less time out of the classroom over the summer, most students don’t need as much review when they return. Plus, the opportunity to relax and recharge throughout the year prevents students – and teachers – from becoming exhausted. The bottom line: less stress and more learning.” Other’s disagree completely and believe that the frequent breaks cause unnecessary interruptions causing kids and families to become stressed and create issues when finding childcare. The entire idea of a new calendar year in school would only create more problems and hurt the economy
Many people automatically disagree with the idea of year round schooling. It sounds daunting and like there would be way too much work. However, this is not necessarily true. Year round schooling would still give the same amount of time off as getting the summer off, except the breaks would be divided into shorter 2 to 4 week breaks throughout the school year. There are more advantages as well, some of which we will now look over.
Year round schools as cited by the thesaurus in the ebsco host states that year round schools are “schools that operate year-round but have not increased the number of days students must attend.” Education week on the web states that year round education is “A modified school calendar that offers short breaks throughout the year, rather than the traditional summer vacation. The calendars vary as do the reasons for switching to a year-round schedule. Some schools stagger the schedules to relieve crowding. Others think the three-month break allows students to forget much of the material covered in the previous year” (2002).
The traditional school calendar is what is comfortable. It is like the childhood blanket that no one wants to give up, but eventually it must be. It just simply does not make sense anymore. Dr. Daniel A. Domenech opens his article, “Should Students Attend School Year Round?” with this idea. He says that this typical schooling system was established originally to allow students time to help out on their family farms. (Domenech). Domenech not only taught for 36 years in public education, but he was also President at American Association of School Administrators, Inc. He obviously is extremely familiar with this topic and also the debate about whether all schools should begin to operate on a full year calendar. He goes forward by saying that it is no longer a mostly agricultural society and is an extremely outdated calendar. Mary O’Sullivan agrees with Domenech and further explains why the system was originally practical in her essay, “The 10-Month School Year: Are We Ignoring Educational Research in order to Preserve Summer Vacation? Finding a Compromise Between Educational Advancement and Over-Schooling.” O’Sullivan says, “…the majority of the school-aged c...
First I need to explain that this is different from extending the school year; on a year round schedule, students attend school the same number of days-180-as students on the traditional nine-month calendar. The difference is that year round education (YRE) students have several short vacations rather than one three-month summer break. Most year-round schools operate on a multi-track calendar, and group students in three or four tracks with different vacation times. While one group is on vacation, another track is using the building.