Tomorrow is my last day of work for the 2010/2011 school year. For many teachers like me summer break is beginning and they can rest, recharge their batteries, and reflect on what happened over the past school year. In my division we have nine weeks before we are back to start a new year.
Yesterday, I talked about the awkward time period at the end of the school year. Today, I want to explore the issue of our school calendar at a broader level. The approximately 180 days of schooling that takes place in most states is a product of a time when most people worked on farms. Does it make sense to keep that same calendar into today's society?
Let me propose an alternative. What if public schools moved to fill more of the full year calendar, spreading the 9 weeks of summer vacation out over the course of the calendar year.
First, it cuts down on the summer brain drain problem. For some kids summer is a time where they forget what they learned. When they get back in the fall, they have to relearn information to catch up. From what I have read this problem tends to effect more students who are economically disadvantaged. So spreading schooling out over more of the year would help to eliminate this problem in education.
Second, I think it would help to balance the teacher workload. Teachers put in a ton of time, effort, and energy over the course of the school year and really do need some time in the summer to recover. I don't know if they actually need nine weeks for recovery. By spreading out the school year and creating smaller chunks of vacation, like three three week breaks and two one week breaks, you could help teachers still get the rest they need while maintaining a fairly consistent school year.
Third, it would require schools to rethink how they organize their classes. You wouldn't want a class interrupted by a three week break so you would have to create smaller lengths of time for classes. Instead of 180 or 90 days, you might have 60 days of class. That would help to keep courses in more manageable chunks for teachers to plan and execute. I also think it would help kids focus on content more, since material would need to be more evenly spaced.
What do you think about this idea? I am not sure how I feel about it, but I figured I could propose something to get the conversation started. Post a comment and tell me how you would like to design the school year.
There are a lot of schools doing alternate schedules like this. I think it's probably a better idea than the current schedule most VA schools use.
ReplyDeleteOverall I'd like to see a lot more intentionality with school structure - so much of what is seems there by default. I'd like to see more exposure to career paths, more hands-on work, more practical applications of study. A broken-up year would seem to lend itself better to this.
Matt:
ReplyDeleteYour comment about default is spot on. Overall, schools are still doing the same basic thing that they did 100 years ago. I would love to be given an opportunity to totally redesign schooling in the public sphere, but I don't think any community will be willing to let me try.