| President Obama is talking about extending American schools all year round. Do you think this should be up to the government |
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President Obama is talking about extending American schools all year round. Do you think this should be up to the government
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Asked 2 years ago
by Lin  United States |
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About
I am Catholic, Liberal, and a Grandmother of two. I am also very opinionated.
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10 Points
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States should decide for themselves how long they want their school year to be.
Actually it should be up to the government. The government collects the taxes and pays the teachers. The future of the country is based upon the level of education these schools provide.
Personally I think its a pretty good idea. Kids would probably get a two week break between 4 semesters. That is plenty of time to get family vacations worked in and give kids access to vacations in different parts of the year, instead of just summer. Teachers already get paid year around.
I think the idea sucks. For decades children have looked forward to long summer vacations and doing things like touring the USA, going to Europe, or just going off to summer camp. Then when families return home their kids still have time to do other things they may enjoy doing: build a tree house, work summer jobs so they can save up for a car or a new computer or whatever, read all the books they never had time to read during the school year, and have time to play outdoors with their friends too.
Forcing kids to go to school all year round is just wrong; not only is it wrong but the idea sucks too.
If they are going to public (AKA government) school why isn't the schedule up to the government? What a private school decides to do should be left for the individual school to decide.
I personally favor year round school; though I also think it should be a local or state decision not the Federal government. You go to school the same total number of days, your big massive summer break is just broken up in to 4 smaller breaks over the course of the year. It has the advantage that the students get more breaks during the year, and no really long break to get completely out of the school routine. In theory there would be less review time after breaks.
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My question is, what about the kids that want to go to summer school to either make up failed classes or classes to just get ahead. I went to summer school one summer to take two classes I didn't have time to take during regular school sessions. I would not do it again. What about kids that want to get summer jobs. I do like the idea of breaking school up into four semesters. Summer is just to long for to many kids.
"What about kids that want to get summer jobs." -- That's only the oldest of the kids, and not a primary concern for the schools or the kids for that matter. If they want jobs they can still get them. I got my first job when I was 16 and in 10th grade. I worked evenings and weekends.
"what about the kids that want to go to summer school to either make up failed classes or classes to just get ahead." -- Do they actually fail kids anymore? I thought that wasn't allowed because it hurt there self-esteem.
Maybe what you should be asking is why the current system?
Summer is never too long for kids with friends who go swimming, play outdoor games, hang out on their friend's porches reading comic books or whatever. I cannot remember one summer when I was in k-12 classes (1954-1968) that I was eager to go back to school. You really think there are kids who think summer is too long? I never knew any such kids when I was growing up.
What's more... nowadays kids have twice as much they can do to keep occupied. Today's kids can not only enjoy all the outdoor activities I enjoyed, there is no limit to the indoor activities they can do... PlayStation III, XBox, Wii, listen to their iPods, learn new computer programs... the possibilities are endless. How could they get bored. But heck, if they are THAT unimaginative maybe they should go back to school. At least there they can get some direction as to how to spice up their boring little lives. Oh, I just feel sooo sorry for them. Haha. Not!!!
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Sounds like you grew up in the house next door to mine.
Maybe. I hated school. Now if they had had the Internet back then maybe it would have been different. The Internet makes it so much easier to learn just about anything you are interested in.
If they are dumb unmotivated kids with little ambition summers may be too long for them, but that is why summer camp exists. Kids who know how to put their summers to good use should not be penalized for the sake of the dumb asses.
This comment was deleted.
[-6 points] 2 years ago by deleted user ReplyToo late B^(
Roosevelt got the OK to interfere with state business in the 30's. We gave up teaching Civics in the early 70's. Most people would be very surprised to learn that only the most convoluted reasoning allowed this to go on despite what it says in the constitution. Many think it's some kind of right wing conspiracy.
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Good answer "BlackOrchid". The federal Government should not be making these types of decisions. The next thing we know the "Government" will be telling us how long we can work, how long we can stay on vacation, how far we can drive our cars,,and it will just go on and on.
Good answer, Jonmarc. How many do you have on this site?
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The federal govt puts a lot of money into the school system. Our schools have to be open for 182 days. If there is a snow day, they have to make it up in June. Therefore I am saying the federal govt does have a vested interest in schools. I grew up in Chicago and there was always something to do and kids everywhere. I would have hated being in the burbs. Now where I live it is like being in a burg. Kids can't walk to many things. It's just to far. They spend way to much time on the games too.
If places to go are too far away that is the parent's fault for not taking it into consideration when they moved to the burbs. Kids shouldn't be penalized for their parents' dumb mistake.
It totally amazes me how many people enjoy seeing kids in America institutionalized year round. I guess the idea is to make everyone conform to the PTA ideal and feel an institution can do it better than parents. Now that I think about it maybe it's not such a bad idea. When I was younger parents' main goal was to raise a family. Now all they think about is how much money can we make and can we afford as wide a flat screen as our neighbors and can we buy junior the hottest new game console, all the games made for it, and the fastest new pcs money can buy for ourselves.
The teachers and students wouldn't go longer, it would just be (shorter) breaks spread out through the year so that the children retain information. School would still be about 180 days. As an education major, I think it is potentially a good idea. It should be up to the state governments though, because they bear the brunt of most educational expenses. federal funding for education is a small percentage of where the money for public education actually comes from.
Unfortunately the way the federal government see it, the fact that they pay that small percentage of the bill, they fell it gives them the rights to make the rules the states must follow.
Children who have a long summer vacation show significant losses in retaining information and skills learned during the previous school year.
So the question is, Do we want our children to make the best use of their education, and, incidentally, make the best use of the money spent on educating them?
Some children.. the slow learners maybe.. not all kids. I always thought that's what summer classes were for, for the kids who couldn't keep up with the rest of the pack.
You are incorrect. Look it up.
America used to be one of the worlds strongest and smartist countries, and now its all gone to hell in a hand bag, most modern day studen't wouldn't be able to make strait A's in a lower level class then say, China or India.
This comment was deleted by Chipmonk .
[1 point] 2 years ago by