Religious Holidays in Public Schools

[adorable]

Originally Posted by HowSoonIsNow

Hi Adorable,

From what I have read--even with year round schooling--there are still significant breaks throughout the school year where parents would need to find alternative means of supervision for their children.

In year round schooling, breaks range from 2 weeks spread throughout the year to 3-5 weeks for summer.



This calendar shows 3 breaks of 15 days off in b/w 45-30 days of learning and 1 break (summer) of 30 days. With either system, parents will need to find care for their children during the days away from school and, in fact, with the balanced (year round) system, I would think they would need to find more alternative means of supervision throughout the course of the year (as opposed to a chunk in the summer).

According to this article, year round schooling doesn't add more learning days to the (180 typical school days) calendar, they just spread the breaks more evenly thoughout the school year:

Instead of a three-month summer vacation, year-round schools typically have several breaks of three to four weeks spread throughout the year. The total number of school days and vacation days remains unchanged, but they are distributed more evenly over the calendar.


So, no matter what schedule, parents will still be responsible for finding and/or paying for adequate supervision for their children at various points throughout the year. I wonder--isn't that their responsibility anyway--as parents?

Just because that is one model doesn't mean that is how it has to be done right? But even that model has benefits over the current system.

Sure it is the parents responsibility. Too bad all parents aren't all so equally responsible. There are plenty of single parents who are stuck, not by choice, trying to raise families on a very limited income. There are even two parent families that face hardships every day in this country and are worried about keeping the lights on. Not because they are irresponsible, but because they can't find work or they can and it's min wage.

I would personally, as a parent prefer to figure out shorter periods of time then such a large chunk. As someone who spent most of their life as a member of the working poor, I think that year round schooling - which other countries have done with some success - is a viable option to help parents that don't have the resources and it benefits the child educationally too.

Here is another article on it: http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/459031

I suspect that kids learn more without such large breaks or forget less depending on how you look at it. The structure remains intact without significant adjustments/disruptions for kids. Shorter periods of time where camp would be needed or alternative childcare arrangements saves money. Kids aren't going to learn less this way....and our kids need to be learning more, especially math and science.