Parents and students from all over Chittenden County packed the Essex High School cafeteria last night to respond to a proposal that would permanently change the school calendar. Members of the Champlain Valley Superintendent’s Association were surrounded, literally. When their efforts to keep the meeting orderly — by getting attendees to write down their reactions on pieces of paper — failed, facilitators passed around mics instead.
The first in a series of four forums this month stayed mostly civil, but the parents who spoke up were largely against the idea of shortening the traditional summer vacation by two weeks to create three “intercessions” during the academic year. One of the goals of Calendar 2.0, which has been proposed for schools in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, is to increase the number of opportunities to identify and help struggling students.
The idea is that the intercessions would allow students who fall behind in classes to catch up, while giving other students a chance to pursue internships and enrichment opportunities.
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I hope your not a parent then!!!!!!! My parents are truly awesome and have taught me to be an awesome person and I am an honor student, Also I enjoy my time at home with my family and friends thank you very much. 🙂
summer breaks are 10 weeks not 11-12 weeks get your facts right!
We both work in my house. Full time. Maintaining the current, medieval school calendar with the overly-long summer break is not the answer to the problems you complain about.
You’ve certainly convinced me that you could use much more vacation time to cope with repressed hostility; three months is quite obviously not nearly enough. Good luck and thank you for helping me to feel grateful that I don’t have to work with someone like you, happy day!
Clearly you are either self employed, or have a stay at home parent. Summer options (that are good, not glorified over the top expensive -babysitting) exist, interim ‘vacation’ camps are either of the above (out of budget for most, or boring, non educational experiences)… Most two working parent households have a very finite number of vacation weeks between them, most of which are spent covering time off from school during the school year…So the choice 2.0 presents who can’t afford good camps (or maybe even bad) is let the kids stay home 1-2 extra weeks in front of crappy tv programming… Rather than have a family vacation/stay-cation. ie. family time.
Furthermore, how do they expect parents with two working parent to get their children to and from the “intercession”? Which they cannot say if they are full or half day, or if the schools will provide transportation? Many employers are not that flexible.
So no, I am THINKING of the good opportunities vs. the indoor, enclosed not-so-good ones given that where we live has many LESS good outdoor days during the school year, unless you are wealthy enough to be a skier. Many are not.
And REACTING to a dumb proposal.
The “quality time” you refer to will not change if the summer break (i.e., educational dead zone) is shortened a bit. You’re reacting, not thinking.
I quote myself. “Input from their own INSTRUCTORS” emphasis added…
That said I firmly believe that when such a major change of scheduling is proposed, perhaps those making the decision are in such a vastly different stratum from many parents, getting their input on how it would affect them is not a bad thing… However badly you think of families… Studies do show that families who spend quality time together have kids less apt to fail, do drugs, have teen pregnancies,etc.
Parents are not the experts at educating kids. In fact, judging by the poor quality of the raw materials (i.e., kids coming i.to the school system) that teachers are presented with these days, it seems that parents are doing a lousy job of educating their own children, preparing them to learn, and encouraging study. Empirically, then, kids should spend less time at home and more time in school.
“Educational” can mean many different things. Children learn from varied experiences that illustrate and reinforce what they take in in the classroom… And there are STILL family farms in Vermont who need their kids help in summers…
Summer jobs are “educational” for HS students, they teach responsibility, money management, lack of entitlement, etc., etc.