Get Schooled

By Mike Slayton

March 3, 2005 01:42 PM | Link to this

The start date for does not matter. There is still only 180 days of school! A student will have the same amount of time off from school.

Mike Slayton

By Marney Mayo

March 3, 2005 01:47 PM | Link to this

If test scores are all important(as we have made them) and we can’t trust students to retain material over a long break immediately before testing—the testing must happen before Winter Break. If it is also necessary that both semesters be the same length and that we not start until labor day—-clearly the obvious answer is to move “Winter Break” to the first two weeks of January and have finals week be the last week of December. Is everyone happy now?

By Ernest

March 3, 2005 02:00 PM | Link to this

Mike hit it on the head! It seems this is becoming more a discussion about revenue for Six Flags than anything else. It’s really a matter of do we want June/July off or July/August off. One could argue will most colleges being on the semester system, we are in alignment with them. IMO, this should be a local decision, not legislated from the state capitol.

By Calvin Wright

March 3, 2005 02:18 PM | Link to this

I work in the Henry County School System .I myself and 95% of Staff, students and parents love the early start of school.The fall and winter breaks give us the opportunity to stay fresh and it definitely improves morale. This is our third year of early school start and the stress, mid semester burn-out and high blood pressure has taken a three hundered sixty degree turn for the better for me. As a coach who works long hours year round,the early start gives me and my family more time together with the extra fall and winter break schedule. Please allow each school systemm to make the call .

By Jeffry Shore

March 3, 2005 02:34 PM | Link to this

Never! I hate school

My mom said to tell y’all I’m nine.

By Cliff Mozelle

March 3, 2005 02:38 PM | Link to this

I live in North Carolina. We just passed the law pushing the start date back. Everybody I know loves it and feels relieved by it. Pretty weak arguement about needing to have the students take their semester end tests before the holidays. Even the teachers I know love it. Who wants to be in school in early August? The travel industry loves it too. This was a no brainer.

By lynn

March 3, 2005 03:03 PM | Link to this

While I shudder at the thought of the state legislature having to intervene in this, which should clearly be a local issue, I believe that there are a number of valid reasons to do so.

One, many of the systems with more year round or balanced calendars, are low revenue systems. These systems use more of their resources on energy costs related to cooling their buildings in the summer.

Two, the research is pretty weak to nonexsistent that the calendar makes any difference in student achievement. The highest performing school systems in the country all have traditional calendars.

Three, if we really want to help kids who need remediation or extra support, the answer isn’t in the calendar but in how many school days in a year. while not all children need more days, 180 is clearly not enough for many Georgian students.

By Tiffany

March 3, 2005 03:11 PM | Link to this

Have the test scores really improved since beginning the early start?

By Lisa Gray

March 3, 2005 03:57 PM | Link to this

I teach in a Georgia school district that begins the school year in the first week of August. We have what is called a balanced calendar. Our summer is two weeks shorter, but we get those two weeks off during the year - in September and in February. Many teachers have moved into our district just so they can take advantage of this calendar.

The biggest advantage we see in this calendar is that students (and teachers) get a nice break about every 6 weeks, allowing them to return refreshed and ready to keep on moving. For myself, this helps prevent the burnout I tend to feel during second semester when the first real break we get is in April. (Not everyone gets MLK Monday off). Our students seem to like this calendar as well.

The bottom line is this: what is best for the students? If we want students to be successful in the classroom, changes must be made; sacrifices must be made. I miss having a longer summer (who wouldn’t??), but I find that this is a smaller price to pay for the greater benefit of having those weeks off during the school year. Is it really that hard to plan vacations at a different time during the year?

By lynn

March 3, 2005 04:02 PM | Link to this

While the teachers may have weeks off in a balanced calendar, I am not at all convinced that the students will. When I studied a proposal by DeKalb County schools for a balanced calendar it was apparent that if they kids were going to do reports or projects of any substance, they would almost sure have some that were assigned before a break and due afterwards. If we can’t have finals after winter break, then I think we need to be consistent, no projects or reports due the week after a break and no tests the week after either.

By B. Smith

March 3, 2005 04:23 PM | Link to this

Changing the calendar to suit TOURISM (businesses) is stupid. I am so sick of hearing people attempting to justify the change with “more family” time. June and July allow plenty of “family” time. If tourism is the primary reason for changing the calendar then those places should invest their time and effort in to another industry.

By David

March 3, 2005 04:25 PM | Link to this

The real question is why education is treated as something that should only be going on for 180 days a year.

Every other comment on this and the previous posts had to do with how “convenient” or “inconvenient” these decisions were making everyone’s lives. I constantly hear parents discuss how great it is to have their kids out of the house, or how the new schedule messes up their vacation plans. Just why exactly are you folks parents??? As for the teachers, most everyone I know says that they became a teacher for the retirement benefits or to have the summers off. Why exactly are these folks teachers??

Meanwhile, a coworker of mine and his wife homeschool their 8 children. They regard (as anyone with a clue should) every moment as an opportunity for learning. They don’t homeschool for 180 days a year. They educate their children 365 days a year. They plan vacations as much around their enjoyment and relaxation as they do around the opportunity to educate their children about another piece of this great country of ours.

Discussions like these only serve to perpetuate 2 horrible myths. One is that learning only happens when some licensed teacher is present (and can only happen an approved number of days a year). And the other is that it is up to the government to decide when learning will take place for your kids.

Throw off the shackles, do your kids a real favor, prove to them that they are loved…homeschool them.

By ADL

March 3, 2005 04:49 PM | Link to this

Sorry Coach Wright.

A three hundred and sixty degree turn isn’t for the better. It puts you back in the same direction you were going. Maybe a earlier school year in Henry County isn’t such a good thing.

By Quana Cassady

March 3, 2005 04:50 PM | Link to this

August is as good as anytime to start.

Most parents work so how are they losing family time with their children?

My husband and I only have a certain amount of vacation time that we may take in a year, there is no way we could spend the entire summer with our children although we would love to.

If changing the date is due to “tourism” then this will not help my children’s education in any way.

What will help? Try a year round schedule. Majority of school systems that attend year round find that children do retain more.

Gwinnett needs to study Dekalb County and the year round school they have in place.

By B.J.

March 4, 2005 08:18 AM | Link to this

There is another issue that no one talks about. What about households where two parents work. It is hard finding things for your children to do during the summer when both parents work. I spend a lot of money trying to find camps and other things for my child to do over the 11 weeks of the summer break.

In addition, several breaks during the year allows children and their families to take advantage of vacation during other times of the year when certain areas are less crowded.

By R.H.

March 4, 2005 08:47 AM | Link to this

What school has 11 weeks of summer vacation? I don’t know of any school in GA that has more than about 8 weeks of summer. There is no right answer, if you start school in late August or early September than school won’t end until late June (or possibly early July). Parents will continue to complain. If family time is so important, try spending some time with your kids during the school year!

By MLC

March 4, 2005 09:00 AM | Link to this

Right on target David!! We just moved to a Balanced school year area from VA where Kings Dominion holds sway. For years there has been a battle over what is commonly known as the “Dominion Law” that prohibits starting the school year before Labor Day. The children are in school until the end of June! They have some of the best schools in the country, but that doesn’t seem to be tied to their school calendar. When children go to school doesn’t make nearly as much of a difference as the environment the are in while they are there. It has been my experience that the Rockdale County schools are still teaching under an outdated paradigm that there is a single right way to teach all children. When they open their eyes and acknowledge that only half (if even that many) of the class is learning the way the teacher is teaching maybe we can see some progress! Everyone learns differently and when we teach our teachers to understand that more of our kids will finally ‘get it’!

By CeCe

March 4, 2005 09:04 AM | Link to this

I like school starting earlier with more frequent breaks during the year. It allows the students time to de-stress. And the thought of school going past Memorial Day used to drive me crazy. Now we plan vacation right after the kids get out of school.

By Ernest

March 4, 2005 09:19 AM | Link to this

Who was the legislator that kept saying the intent of this bill was not to take local control from the school system but provide a 10 day ‘window’ for start dates? Does he really think citizens are that ‘naïve’? I am glad this legislation did not pass. It does cause concern that when advocates who don’t get their way with the elected school board seeks relief through state legislators, even if their beliefs may be the minority opinion. If a true majority of the citizens seek this change, it should be given consideration. I’m not convinced this is the case with this issue.

By Lisa

March 4, 2005 09:20 AM | Link to this

When did school become equated with childcare? The choices we make regarding education should reflect the needs of CHILDREN and not the convenience of adults.

By Abbey

March 4, 2005 09:21 AM | Link to this

David, you are very correct. I am a homeschooling mom with many friends who teach in the public schools. (I also grew up in PA, where schools began after Labor Day, so it does seem “unfair” to start school in the tradional summer month of August.) But let’s face it, the days of “family vacations in August” are over. More parents work are happy to give their children over to the school system from 7:30 am to 5 pm because it suits their work schedule and they think their children are in a safe environment. What is does is just prolong an unnatural separation between parent and child and give innumerable opportunities for the child to be influenced by those other than the most important people - his parents. And even then, the school are completely ill-equipped to handle children on an individual basis and with common sense as we see DAILY in media reports from all over the country. Zero tolerance, bah! Call it zero common sense!

My family unit is more important than anything else and we prefer to operate on OUR time schedule with OUR values and OUR curriculum and OUR learning methods tailored to each child, rather than let someone ELSE decide when, where, what, and in what manner my children should learn.

I am a product of the public school system and I loved school. But I am a rarity - I am THAT person for whom school was designed; self-motivated, satisfied by finishing workbooks, eager to please superiors, eager to learn about anything, and happy with a given set of perameters. But then, I didn’t have a learning disability, or a troubled home life or I wasn’t the child of a parent who had me at age 17. I grew up with two parents, and a stay-at-home mom who was there all the time for me. But children are individuals and the more complex our society becomes with all the permutations of “family life” and the pressure to “have it all” on the women, the more burdened and less able our schools are to be the parent in absentia.

By Mary

March 4, 2005 09:27 AM | Link to this

As I recall, we had longer summers and didn’t start until after Labor Day. We did well on standardized tests without all the preparations the kids have today. Our class work and a number 2 pencil were all the preparation we needed. We had recess and PE and we all survived. Teachers now just don’t want to go outside. How many truly obese children did you go to school with? The answer lies in how are children are being taught. There should be more time spent on the Three R’s and less time on political agendas. How about bringing back the gifted programs without making the kids who qualify for them feel guilty because the other kids didn’t make the cut. By making them stay in the status quo you are simply teaching them that no matter how hard they try or how good they are at something they will never be allowed to have more than anybody else. Summer is about more than tourism. It’s about decompressing. Just getting out and being a kid without a schedule. And for parents who both work(my husband and I included), you work around what you have to because you love your kids.

By dail f. melton

March 4, 2005 09:31 AM | Link to this

I’m a 49 year old dad of two sons. A 16 and a 10 year old. I’m a college educated guy who currently works in graphic communications.(Yeah, I myself am a 70’s kid.)The above is my “credentials to speak” on this subject. I was schooled in the “system” out west. I’ve lived in Georgia for the past 20 years. In the time I’ve lived here, I’ve heard auguments for the “year around schedual,” school uniforms and more qualified teachers, to resolve the learning problems these kids seem to have. Yet this state still ranks somewhere about the 49th in the country for quality, and has one of the highest dropout rates in the country. Well, I watch and observe. Thats the way it is with your artist types. The real problem here is folks, be you teacher or parent, is not longer days and shorter breaks, nor is it a damn uniform to take away a kids individuality. (Something we encourage in thinking, but take away in action.) It is first, that parents have to teach their kids to “want to learn.” But even with that, you’ve got to have kids who “want to learn!” (Something I admit I have problems with my two sons with.) 1. Bring back rigid discipline for problem students. ( I hated paddeling, but I got to admit, looking back it “worked.”) 2. Find affordable ways to make your assignments interesting and challenging. (Remember the Fox Fire books? Written by kids.) 3. What ever happen to Science Fairs, Wood and metal shop, or automotive? (The latter for those kids who are not cut out to be doctors, lawyers and CEO’s.) 4. Get them to write! Geez, I see more “handouts” coming home with my grade schooler than I got in my entire school life.! 5. Utilize the new computer technology that the lottery has given the schools more efficiently. Computers and the net are a wonderful resouce tool. ( I work alot with this medium myself.) Yet the local schools with their billion dollars worth of equipment, do not utilize them effectively! In short, quit harping on “duration of exposure and personal presentation” (dress code.) and start focusing on improving the quality of programing and the increasement of enthusiasm in the students! That, will solve the problem. As for Summer breaks? Let the kids have a childhood. In the big metro area I know that is hard but, once they are 18, (as I tell my sons,) they’ll be working for the rest of their life.

By John

March 4, 2005 10:55 AM | Link to this

The simple way is to start school the day after Labor Day. This allows for vacations and time for teachers to complete their continuing education. I remember that my high school graduation was May 22nd. That leaves plenty of time for all. And yes, we had snow days, but we did not stop school because there was a quarter inch of snow on the ground.

By Alisa

March 4, 2005 11:12 AM | Link to this

Ok folks, I was raised in the GA school system and I can tell you quite well what the problems are. First and foremost is the fact that GA spends too much time and money on changing everything except the fact that time and money is being wasted! If a new program or book doesn’t give immediate results, then out the door it goes. Testing is more important than teaching our children to think outside the box. So big money is spent on books and tests instead of giving a child a lesson in social development on the playground. Which by the way is a bit less expensive. If grant money is not spent, schools lose the money the following year. What a waste! Allow schools to decide where the money should go. Decent playgrounds that are safe would be a good place to start!

Secondly, our teachers are not allowed to explore new teaching methods outside of the current program. Allow our teachers to take students outside to learn about nature, pollution and such instead of making them sit in a seat being lectured to most of the day. Wonder why students tune out to teachers and parents? Gee, constant lectures couldn’t be the problem. The issue of longer or shorter summers is just another issue to go on wasting money and time. Each county should be allowed to decided on calandars, not the state. If parents want longer summers, then give it to them. If they want a balanced calander, give it. Allow the parents to have a say in the issue rather than making the decision without consideration. My children are in a system with a balanced calandar and they love/hate it. So do teachers. I have heard the pros and cons of both calandars. I myself have yet to decide which is best as I am waiting to see results from our new calandar. I would rather see if the new approach works before throwing it out the door. Personally, I think longer summers are based on an old system that no longer applies to our current lifestyles. Children should be allowed to be children. Yet, at the same time, if the day was a bit shorter and the amount of days increased, there is a possibility that students would be a bit more successful. Sitting in a sit for the majority of a day isn’t healthy nor productive! Growing children need to run, fly a kite and explore their world by being in it instead of being lectured and told about the world! There is even an arguement for increasing the length of a school day and calandar. Regardless of the amount of time a student spends in school or what month school starts, we as parents really should be more involved with our educational system. As a volunteer for many years in the public school systems of GA, I have heard every excuse under the sun as to why parents cannot be involved!

There are even more problems in our school systems than this right now. This issue will die and another will replace it and the only thing that will be learned from it all is that we can and will go on screaming and yelling to fix a dying system which will end up 50th in the nation any way. The only true changes since the late 70’s and early 80’s is the fact that recess is gone, PE will go, socializtion is taking a backseat to the ever changing curriculum and GA is still failing their children academically! Until common sense takes over and true dedication to real academics is given, our system will continue to be the laughing stock of the nation. Homeschooling may end up being the only real choice we have to educate our children and to keep them fit mentally and physically!

By Marcia Barth

March 4, 2005 11:30 AM | Link to this

There rationale does not fly. The days before winter break are filled with holiday events, keyed up and excited kids, worn out parents - to me not the ideal time for important tests. Winter break also lasts way too long. They should shorten winter break and have a review prior to testing when they return. The long breaks seem geared to families that can aford fancy vacations for winter and spring breaks. Working parents, on the other hand, are left scrambling for options. Starting school in August, barely leaves time to prepare and transition from summer arrangements. If school started after labor day, you’d have the long weekend to handle some of these tasks if necessary.

By Cliff Mozelle

March 4, 2005 11:54 AM | Link to this

August is a summer month. You don’t go to school in the summer. You go on vacation and have a great summer, spend money, and accumulate those memories. What’s wrong with moving the schedule for tourism reasons? Tourism is the #1 industry of South Carolina. Pretty high in other states too. Go with it. The kids get the same # of school days anyway. Also cut out all the stupid “teacher work days”. Nonsense. What are they doing the other days? Not working? Have a great summer. The water’s warmer in August than June anyway.

By L. Bettencourtt

March 4, 2005 12:00 PM | Link to this

Well, first, any reference to the “traditional” calendar must view also the agrarian tradition that started it. I am a parent of two kids, 10 and 14. I did fairly well in school myself. I personally do not understand why the schools have gravitated toward the calendar year. The first day of school would be January, and graduation in December. I also believe, as stated earlier, that our kids simply don’t get enough school as it is. They are in for 180 days, but have you ever noticed all the “throwaway” days there are? How much academia happens on the last day before the Winter breaks, or the last week of school? Little to none. The US is dead last is the number of academic days our kids spend in school. We don’t have to get as drastic as some Asians (240+ in Japan), but we could at least go to 210 with a requireemnt that at least 200 of those be spent in instruction. Balanced calendars do work at school systems that adopted them to achieve. People are quick to point out balanced calendar failures, but a large number of them went to it for logistics. Those systems rotate a two-month break with different students throughout the year. Other failures are systems where there was a lot of oppposition within the school administration, and they proved it “wouldn’t work,” exactly as the opposers predicted. How convenient. For sheer ridiculousness, how many of you have a school sytem that starts on a Friday, then takes the following Monday off? I’ve heard five distinctly different reasons for this, the lamest being using Monday to “evaluate who showed up.” I asked the superintendant who told me that why didn’t they ome in on Saturday to do that, and he looked at me incredulously and said, quote: “Because Saturday isn’t a school day.” Folks, most of the problem here is that society needs to change its attitude toward schools and education, and re-organize our ideas from the 19th century to the 21st.

By Candice Hoxit

March 4, 2005 12:08 PM | Link to this

I enjoy having my kids start school in early August. We get all of our vacationing for summer activities completed in plenty of time and then get more little breaks like several Fridays off during the school year to take other family time like winter fun. It gives the children more breaks from school during the year instead of getting so burnt out. We love it.

By G W

March 4, 2005 12:11 PM | Link to this

This really is not an argument over “tourism� as much as it is over whether or not starting school earlier each year has provided any additional educational benefit to our children. Education not only happens in a formal setting like our school classrooms, it also happens during interaction with the world outside a classroom. Family, friends, peers and the world around us also play an important part in educating and molding our children into the people they will become as adults.

Maybe we should all be more concerned with the Quality vs. the Quantity of time spent in a formal school environment. Given that the 180 days a year of formal education is a constant requirement; it should be what we do with that time that matters. Learning is a constant event for all of us and the years we all spend in a formal school environment is simply a concentration of the learning experience. During my ‘formal’ school years, I learned just as much during the time I was in a formal classroom environment as I did outside a classroom. Mainly this was through educational programs and travel to other places, but also just from talking to people and interacting with them where ever I was.

Like it or not the education of our children and therefore the start and finish dates of the school year is not just a local issue; it’s a Global one. Many other states and several other countries do not start their school year until around the end of August or early September and conclude near the end of June. With many Georgia school systems deciding to start their school calendars in early August we are depriving our children of opportunities to learn about our country through travel, participation in educational programs (i.e. those provided by colleges, universities, camps and organizations like NOLS and Outward Bound) and visits with Family. We are also depriving them of opportunities to learn about and experience other cultures and countries through exchange programs (formal and informal) since many of these programs start in July and run through August.

Why is it that many other public school systems in other states have figured out a way to make the ‘traditional’ school year calendar work (nationally many ‘public’ schools conclude in June) while at the same time providing a quality education?

Wanting our children to have the best education possible and having a better life than we did is a worthwhile goal for all of us as parents.

I suggest that our local school boards are fiddling with the wrong variable in our children’s formal education. Our school boards should take another hard look at schools systems around the country with better educational records and see what might work for us in Georgia. This is our future we are talking about.

By Sara

March 4, 2005 12:39 PM | Link to this

I just wanted to say that I am enjoying reading these comments. I am from Atlanta but currently live in Chicago. I work in a school and we get out the 10th of June and start after Labor Day. Trust me our parents complain too! I don’t think it really matters when you start or end school, there will always be those who feel it should be another way. The children still get plenty of time to relax, afterall what we do in schools should be about the children. Thanks for helping me stay connected to “home”.

By RCA

March 4, 2005 12:59 PM | Link to this

This discussion about when school should start has begun to move to the true problems our society is facing. It does not matter when the local school board decides to start school. If you cannot deal with it, move somewhere else.

Education is not just about teaching the curriculum, although that is what the main focus should be. Teachers should only have to reinforce values that are consistenly taught at home, but teachers are now having to spend too much time disciplining and teaching values. Also, schools are teaching more to kids at a younger age. Look at a high school student’s textbook, and it will contain material that was taught in college 15 years ago. Areas where many students are not taught values at home are going to struggle.

I presently teach in a great situation and have my opinions about when I would like the school year to start, but I know it does not impact the effectiveness of the school to present the material. I/this school will be effective because we have community support.

So, this discussion is not about how the school calendar should be set up, but how as a parent or the member of a community we/you can contribute to the advancement of a young person!

When we quit being so egocentric and start finding ways to contibute instead of complain about teachers or our entire educational syetem, we will all be in a better society!

By LLM

March 4, 2005 01:42 PM | Link to this

I agree with one of the other comments about Rockdale Co Schools. I have lived here all my life and before having kids in the system I thought Rockdale was one of the best. Then you get in the system and most of the people that could REALLY help the children don’t care about the children. We have some really great teachers but they are alot more bad ones. The Board of Education is a joke. The Superintendent really isn’t worth takling about, he does nothing but sit back and gets his pay check and not that he is leaving having done really nothing for the County we give him a huge bonus. Maybe he should see clear to give that back to the system to help get this school system back on track since he never did. You hear more and more about Rockdale Co. schools in the news. Why? Because there is no willing to step up to the plate and make things better. It doesn’t matter when the kids are in school if the school isn’t any good to begin with. The 180 days they go to doesn’t matter if we just having them sit there and be yelled at and mistreated but most of the teachers don’t want to be there. You can see in their faces. Come on Rockdale Co. get us some great to be in charge of our schools that will care and listen to what is needed for all the children not just the ones we can show off in the paper. There are more than those children in the school and if we were handing out bonus to people that don’t deserve it and give to the ones that really could use it like the good teachers maybe just maybe we would have a better school system. Please don’t tell me you can’t find the bad teachers just listen to your parents we are the ones that deal with them day after day. And you should look at most of the front office staff too. If you don’t like your jobs find new ones. We only need people in our schools that really want to be there in every area of the school. If you son’t want to be around children get out of the school system and let someone else come in that might really want to be there.

By LDM

March 4, 2005 01:53 PM | Link to this

I agree with one of the other comments. It doesn’t matter when the children are in school if they don’t have a school that can teach them what and how they need. Rockdale Co was once thought of as one of the best. Well, want until you have a child in the system. You get a loud wake up call. Most of them Principal and Lead Teachers act as if there could care less if there were there are not. You ask them for help and they so it isn’t there problem. Even when they find out it is there problem they do nothing to fix it. They just push it off to someone else. Of course they have the best to teach them that the Superintendent of Rockdale Co Schools. He is finally leaving and I guess that the school board is so happy to see him go that is why they gave him a huge bonus this year. I really hope the board does a better job picking someone to lead this school system. Maybe we will get our name of the new almost every night about something bad going on in our schools. I sitll can’t understand why he got a bonus…for what? The schools don’t have enough money to buy text books and he gets a bonus. I have been told by two different schools this year that they didn’t have enought text books for all the students and they had to share books. So why does it matter when they are in school if they don’t even have a book to learn from.

By Chris

March 4, 2005 02:04 PM | Link to this

At first I did not like the idea of a shorter summer break. After the first year of a balanced calendar I think it’s great. The break from students every six weeks is refreshing for my wife. Crowds at the beach are almost nonexistent and the hotel rates are lower in September. Our children really enjoy the snow in Chicago with family in February.

By high school teacher

March 4, 2005 02:46 PM | Link to this

I want to let everyone know why we have those “stupid teacher work days” built into the calendar.

After dropping my children off at day care, I get to school around 7:45 (but my contract day doesn’t start until 8:10, so this is “free overtime”), which gives me enough time to gather my wits before my first period students enter the room at 8:30.

During my planning period, I research my upcoming lessons, plan for the next day or next week, make phone calls to parents, and meet with other teachers in my subject area (this is called collaborative planning) to see if they have any strategies that will help my lower level readers in my class. I don’t have that much time to grade papers.

I usually leave school around 4:30 (even though my contract time is 3:40) and pick up my children, and then head home to be a good parent, which includes making dinner, cleaning the kitchen after dinner, playing a game, coloring or designing a snake made of Play-doh, watching the Power Rangers, folding clothes, cleaning the bathrooms, and bathing two children (Insert praise for single parents here; I don’t see how you do it by yourself!).

My day might not sound so different than another professional mother; in fact, my hours might seem better than other professionals, but my day of work is not finished. I still have to grade papers, complete the plans that I did not finish at school, and read the novel that my students are reading outside of class.

Teachers need work days to catch up on paperwork, attend inservices on new strategies to help the “non traditional learner,” have staff meetings about how they can improve the absentee rate, and clean their rooms. I challenge anyone who thinks teaching is easy to try it for just one day. It is not as easy as you think. Contrary to popular opinion (based on some of the posts in “Get Schooled”), teachers care very much about their students and want to see them succeed. Granted, there are those who entered the profession for summers off, but how many places of employment don’t have undesirable employees? What if I judged all homeschoolers by the one boy who lives in my neighborhood and spends his time riding his motorcycle up and down the street and vandalizing property?

Those in the working world have to prepare for presentations at conference meetings. You must spend hours of time planning and creating documents, charts, graphs, and multimedia presentations. So do I. Imagine presenting at a conference meeting for 6 hours a day every day. Essentially, that’s what teachers do.

By V. Beasley

March 4, 2005 02:47 PM | Link to this

Chris and Lisa Gray, I want to work with y’all! What districts are you with?I say we get everyone in the state on the same page with a similar year-round/balanced calendar and be done with it. The issue is so large and impacts so many people that it requires a global solution.

By Zabud

March 4, 2005 03:02 PM | Link to this

Given the fact that gasoline will be $2.50 per gallon by mid-summer, only the wealthy “private school” families will be able to take a vacation anyway. Might as well stay in school year-round.

By David

March 4, 2005 04:53 PM | Link to this

I would just like to make a point about so-called wealthy “private school” parents.

A recent commentary from a public high school student generated quite a negative response from AJC readers, and I have no doubt that similar comments would come from the folks who read these forums.

I am now 41, but as a child I was blessed with parents who used flash cards with me practically from birth, who read to me, and who taught me to read by the age of 3. They refused to take the government’s crap that I had to wait until I was 5 1/2 to attend school just because I was born in February. They put me in a Montessori school and I fluorished. After that they sent me to another private school for gifted children. I went to school with the likes of Walter Matthau’s son Charlie and Crispin Glover to name a couple. The parents of these kids were very rich, but my mom worked as a secretary and my dad made only a bit more than her as a draftsman. They cut back, saved, and scrimped so that I could get a better education than the government was giving. After my mom divorced my dad she managed to keep me in this private school with the help of scholarships that were available through the school. I was taught to work hard at my studies and to get great grades. I got those scholarships as much because of our financial situtation as my own show of committment to learning (and my mom’s). I left there and attended a private Catholic high school (though I am not Catholic) along with plenty of kids whose parents were far from wealthy. They, like my mom, knew that education was too important to be left to the government and valued the education enough to do what it took to make it happen. Even after I left the gifted school, my mom continued to send them money to help pay back the scholarships because she didn’t like the concept of the charity.

To assume that everyone with a child in private schools is rich might be an easy way to free yourself of the burden of the choices you have made for your children, but it is untrue and a serious cop-out regarding your responsibilities as a parent.

When private school parents complain about having to pay for the failed government schools as well as the private schools, it is not being elitist, it is being honest. The reality is that even the schools they are sending their kids to are more expensive simply because of all the money the government schools are taking from the economy and flushing down the drain.

So stop your generalizations about private schools and deal with your own realities of why you would turn you kids over to the government to raise them for 12 years. And by the way, you don’t have to be rich to homeschool either. The co-worker I mentioned in a previous post who homeschools his 8 kids makes far less than I do and his wife does the schooling. Priorities, that’s what its all about.