School Year Might Go Year Round

[Seil]

This be in my local news. Yarr.

The Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district is once again considering year-round schooling for its students.

Staff members have been asked by the school board to prepare a report on the possibility of implementing year-long learning, also called a balanced calendar, in the district and table it in November.

Such a system differs from the traditional calendar, which gives students a two-month summer vacation.

Instead of 60 days in the summer, and the usual Christmas and spring breaks, the balanced calendar spreads the days throughout the year. For example, a balanced calendar could give students 30 days in the summer, 15 days for a fall break, 15 for Christmas and 15 for spring break.

Trustee Dot Neary asked for the report after a number of parents expressed their support for the change after studies suggesting that balanced calendars result in improved grades, increased student attendance and a decrease in teacher sick days.

Supporters of balanced calendars say long summers are damaging for students who don't keep up with reading or learning activity, and much of the beginning of each year is spent reviewing the previous year's material.

Neary suggested that one or more schools in the district could be part of a pilot project using a balanced calendar. Trustee David Murchie acknowledged that it would be a "significant departure" from the current system, which is largely the result of the need for farmers to have their children on the farms during the growing season.

"Personally, I think that there are less disruptive ways to improve education but I fully support the board's decision to ask that a report be written on the subject," he said.

I'm for it.

[TDK]

I've heard that or seen that story in the news literally every year since I started elementary school. Its not going to happen.


Oh wait, you're Canadian. Maybe its different there?

[Geminex]

It's a pretty good system. I've had experience with both, and I prefer the balanced calendar.

[Token]

I'm also for it. After all, the current method is just a remenant of agricultural tradition.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Isn't that everyone already does? Man I though this thread would be about getting rid of holidays and being like "Hahahaha, suck it up kiddies".

[Token]

Originally Posted by Smarty McBarrelpants

Isn't that everyone already does? Man I though this thread would be about getting rid of holidays and being like "Hahahaha, suck it up kiddies".

I wouldn't hate thus, either. My (public) school is really obnoxious about holidays. "Winter" vacation starts Christmas Eve and lasts for two weeks. :/

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I don't know if that's considered to be good or bad? We have our summer holidays and Christmas holidays combined so I don't know?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

It'd definitely be less of a level breaker for the students; shorter breaks means its easier to get back into the rhythm of classes when you get back, plus you might retain a little bit more of what you learned previously.

[Osterbaum]

Not to hijack the thread too much, but I'm curious as to what are the standard durations for class in your respective schools? For example (from my own personal experience) during grades 1-9 one school hour was 45min and usually we could have two of those in a row at the most. In the gymnasium (high-school, I guess) my school used 75min shoolc hours, but usually there weren't double hours. In the university an hour is again 45min. It's just this talk about a balanced calendar that got me thinking about other school norms and alternatives, like the lenght of a class.

For me a balanced calendar is a more complicated issue. Traditionally university students work one job their summer holidays and thus collect money for the start of the next school year. So while I prefer the idea of a balanced calendar from the perspective of studying, there are quite alot of issues I could see with it and providing your own income at the same time.

[bluestarultor]

I dunno about anyone else, but having had both traditional and year-round schooling (admittedly in college), I wonder if these people have ever considered that kids tend to do a good deal of social growing and "being a kid" during a long summer vacation. Not to mention it's nice to have a real break after the stress of finals.

This strikes me as taking a lot of the fun out of childhood, but then schools as an institution seem to excel at that. It's all about the test scores and beating information into kids' heads to regurgitate. Personally, I think kids need to be given ample time to be kids instead of finding the next more efficient system for conditioning them to hate knowledge and end up working in a cubicle somewhere flinging pencils at the ceiling.