Year Round School Brings Up Many Questions
I've heard both administrators and teachers say that the first month of school is generally
used to refresh students and go over the materials from the previous school year. I've also heard that there are students that are not capable of retaining the information that they learned from the previous school year over summer break. Forcing teachers to re-teach the material and slowing down the progress of students who are able to move forward. Would having children attend school year round help to alleviate that problem?
I'm always up for implementing solutions to help improve the education of our children. But I want effective solutions. I know that schools in Colorado and around the country have implemented year round schools for years. I'm very interested in learning whether or not there are statistics to prove that year round school is helping to improve education in schools. Are students who attend school year round getting a better education? Are they doing better in school and are they learning and retaining more? As a parent, those are the questions I want answered.
Implementing year round school is going to create hurdles for parents. A major concern will be child care during the year round school breaks. For as long as I can remember schools vacations have generally been from June through August. Day Care providers often offer services for the summer months to parents of school aged children. Will day care centers change their services in order to provide for the year round school breaks?
It would be my hope that our local schools would attempt to coordinate their breaks as closely together as possible so that child care providers in our area would be able to service the parents in their districts.
The OR reported last week that one of our local elementary schools in Washington County does not have air conditioning. Even the schools that do have air conditioning don't always have the most effective air conditioning systems. Going to school in the warm months of May and September is difficult enough without a proper air conditioning system. But I would think that it would be absolutely miserable for children to attend school during the sweltering months of June, July and August without an air conditioning system that works properly.
Schools in our area have just recently begun having their summer staff work 10 hour days/four days a week to conserve on electricity and cooling expenses. If students are attending school year round that would mean that costs for electricity to cool off these buildings during the hot summer months will increase drastically.
It can be done. I know that. It’s being done across our nation in certain areas already. But it’s not just going to affect our children. It will affect many other industries and businesses. Public and private swimming pools will suffer greatly if children are in school all day during the summer. I know that amusement parks saw a decline in attendance this summer due to high gas prices. How would Kennywood survive with children in school most of the summer? Will our economy struggle even more if year round schools become a reality?
What then happens to the band, basketball, soccer and football camps that children usually attend during the summer? What about athletes that use the summer to train and prepare for their sports?
I’m interested in learning more about what changes this would bring if we do end up having our children attend school year round. I’m hoping that someone in power is asking these same questions too.
I’d love to know what other parents, community members, administrators and teachers think about this.
used to refresh students and go over the materials from the previous school year. I've also heard that there are students that are not capable of retaining the information that they learned from the previous school year over summer break. Forcing teachers to re-teach the material and slowing down the progress of students who are able to move forward. Would having children attend school year round help to alleviate that problem?
I'm always up for implementing solutions to help improve the education of our children. But I want effective solutions. I know that schools in Colorado and around the country have implemented year round schools for years. I'm very interested in learning whether or not there are statistics to prove that year round school is helping to improve education in schools. Are students who attend school year round getting a better education? Are they doing better in school and are they learning and retaining more? As a parent, those are the questions I want answered.
Implementing year round school is going to create hurdles for parents. A major concern will be child care during the year round school breaks. For as long as I can remember schools vacations have generally been from June through August. Day Care providers often offer services for the summer months to parents of school aged children. Will day care centers change their services in order to provide for the year round school breaks?
It would be my hope that our local schools would attempt to coordinate their breaks as closely together as possible so that child care providers in our area would be able to service the parents in their districts.
The OR reported last week that one of our local elementary schools in Washington County does not have air conditioning. Even the schools that do have air conditioning don't always have the most effective air conditioning systems. Going to school in the warm months of May and September is difficult enough without a proper air conditioning system. But I would think that it would be absolutely miserable for children to attend school during the sweltering months of June, July and August without an air conditioning system that works properly.
Schools in our area have just recently begun having their summer staff work 10 hour days/four days a week to conserve on electricity and cooling expenses. If students are attending school year round that would mean that costs for electricity to cool off these buildings during the hot summer months will increase drastically.
It can be done. I know that. It’s being done across our nation in certain areas already. But it’s not just going to affect our children. It will affect many other industries and businesses. Public and private swimming pools will suffer greatly if children are in school all day during the summer. I know that amusement parks saw a decline in attendance this summer due to high gas prices. How would Kennywood survive with children in school most of the summer? Will our economy struggle even more if year round schools become a reality?
What then happens to the band, basketball, soccer and football camps that children usually attend during the summer? What about athletes that use the summer to train and prepare for their sports?
I’m interested in learning more about what changes this would bring if we do end up having our children attend school year round. I’m hoping that someone in power is asking these same questions too.
I’d love to know what other parents, community members, administrators and teachers think about this.
posted by ~Michelle Hertig-Sperl at
8:50 PM
2 Comments:
I've wondered for a long time whether this would be a good idea, though I haven't heard conversations about it happening here.
I suspect one of the biggest issues is that it's a significant change and would parents want it to be different because "that's the way it's always been done."
I think I'm going to look into this for a story to see what districts that have done it have to say about it.
nothing wrong with educating and training year round. having a month here or there, camps can still fit in since most are only a week or two. Families would have more time to plan vacations, visit family, etc instead of "just summer" when everyone tries to cram so the kids won't miss school. it's my personal belief the good would far outweight the bad in this scenario.
teebs also won't have all summer, like they seem to do around my area, to get lazy and sit on their asses while their parents work, leaving them to 'find things to do' and next thing you know they aren't returning the next school year.
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