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Yes. It would be more efficient that way.
If they don't then our children are definitely going to have trouble learning the seasons of the year.
Did I miss something here? Are we going back to the Gregorian calendar?
Wouldn't be that bad of an idea.
I somehow misplaced the "pre-" part to that statement.
So yes. That wouldn't be a bad idea. But using something else, like a Julian calendar… not so much.
I thinkit's meant to say that the shool year should be all year round. My initial post was sarcastic.
To answer your question;
No.
All work and no play does not a better student make.
Just my not-so-humble opinion.
In that case, yes. It should be year round.
I agree with you, to not have any break would be ridiculous.
Obviously there would be breaks, but it wouldn't be 2-3 month intervals, instead if would be a week or two at a time.
As somebody who's against public education in general, my opinion on this question probably isn't within the presumed confines of the topic.
I think it's about the quality of education rather than the duration. Here in Canada I feel we put too much emphasis on rote learning and not enough on developing minds of the individuals.
But the whole system is still skewed to turning out either factory fodder at one end of the scale or university profs at the other end, as it has been for decades.
It doesn't allow free or abstract thinkers to flourish. And it doesn't encourage deep understanding of subjects. It seems for many true education comes afterwards through life's experiences.
Jason I am finally getting some time to catch up on a few things and have linked your site (following publicly on mine) – apologies for the delay. This is a valuable site I want to keep up with, especially as I now approach fall and rant season for me begins again!
Regards
Angela.
I know the question was worded in a way that made the calendar seem like the issue! Anyway, no we don't need year round school. Instead of getting the kids for a longer period of time they just need to do better with the time they are already there. If they can't teach kids well enough for them to retain things from May to September then they really need to rethink their methods!
That's not exactly a problem limited to Canadian schools (rote).
There are studies on the kids that do retain things from May to September. They're usually called rich kids. Pretty much everybody else's kids lose over the summer and aren't pushed by their parents to continue their own educations (or don't even have the opportunities to do so). It's not that complicated.
The currant school schedule in the U.S.A. was designed to accommodate the farming community, as this was what the country mostly consisted of when we became a country.
What we have become accustomed to has promoted the "summer vacation" season here as that is when most Americans take their vacations. Also, some industries have scheduled themselves around the summer vacation season as well. Case in point – The auto industry uses the summer to retool for the next model year and the majority of their employees are "laid off" during that time, hence they take their vacations with their children.
If we change that, then we upset the apple cart. This has been brought to light with the experimental "year-round" schools that I have seen in southern California when I lived there. Not only did it increase the cost of operating the schools (air conditioning had to be added to the classrooms), it caused an excess financial burden on parents during the fall, winter and spring "off-cycles" in that they had to find and pay for day care for those children during that time, whereas most communities had summer programs that children could attend during the day when their parents were working that were staffed by college kids on their summer breaks.
Do you see the reasoning?
No. Because those costs are offset by having a higher overall quality of education wherein the kids it produces don't have to work on farms or in manufacturing plants with pre-set down cycles. Or worse, not working at all in manufacturing plants that are shuttered and closed down because some other country has produced better raw material for engineering and designing manufactured products by maximizing the number of probable candidates who could do it when they use a year-round educational year with 45-60 extra days in it.
School should not engulf a student's entire life. They need to learn values that only a family can instill into them (which cannot be learned from a bureaucratic textbook) and they need to learn self-sufficiency. Also, this proposal will increase education costs.
Oh so now theres a problem with the calender? What is it this time religion? Profanity? Evolution?