Friday, February 24, 2012
Isru Chag Labor Day
He'atid announced they are starting the 2012 school year on Tuesday, September 4th, the day after Labor Day and will have school until June 21st. I never really understood why schools waited a day or two AFTER Labor Day to start, which inconvenienced most parents. I hear other schools are also planning on adding days to the school year. I think finally they are getting the message that they have to be sensitive to the schedules of working families if they want us to be able to make enough to pay full tuition! We can't ask teachers to make any less money than they are making now (they have to eat!) but I think it is fair to ask them to start putting in a few more hours. It's still a pretty convenient job in terms of the hours and the days off.
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Michelle Kleinman · 683 weeks ago
Mark · 683 weeks ago
tesyaa · 683 weeks ago
Again, back in the old days, many public school teachers worked afternoons in yeshivas after their public school day was over. They would probably not have taken kindly to starting in the middle of August.
So it's anachronistic in some senses. If yeshivas and public schools have little to do with each other these days, and yeshivas are in newer, air-conditioned buildings, the public school schedule should have no impact on yeshivas.
But then, the frum sleepaway camps would have to change their schedules - many do not end until August 23 or so.
Mark · 683 weeks ago
teacher · 683 weeks ago
School is also not a babysitting service and you should know that the students also need a break after long stretches of school. One Monday off for them can make them fresher and more alert.
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 683 weeks ago
Please clarify. Schools should be off the day after Labor day because:
1. 10 weeks of summer vacation is just enough & teachers need more of a break
2. Teachers need that day to continue grading tests from the previous year
3. Children need an additional break since last years classes only ended 10 weeks earlier & camps ended only two weeks earlier
4. Some other reason that I'm not getting.
4.
thatguy · 683 weeks ago
we already have parents who take their kids out for camp before school is over and who go on random vacations during the year, plus extended vacations which start before and end after school breaks. of course, if you see school as day care then teachers should report for duty just to watch the children even when effective instruction is impossible.
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 683 weeks ago
Maybe we should never have school on Mondays because sometimes parents go away for weekends & come back late on Sunday night making it impossible for the kids to learn on Monday.
Seriously, I think parents can come home at a reasonable hour on Monday evening if there was school the next day.
thatguy · 683 weeks ago
and don't get me wrong -- some teachers then also take off and use the travel day which just makes it tougher to have school. We need to reclaim all the fake days but we can't do it without the buy in of parents who see schooling as more important than an extra day in vail.
that i have had to give finals early because kids are going to a camp which starts before we are done also shows that parents are emphasizing the wrong priorities. too often, schools ahve to fight against parents instead of being able to rely on them.
tesyaa · 683 weeks ago
Unless the families who want special accommodations are also the families keeping the school afloat. Oh wait a minute...
Miami Al · 683 weeks ago
Even nicer would be Wednesday before Labor Day with a Friday teacher workday. Let everyone ease into school. I think that starting school on a Monday or even a Tuesday is foolish. Other than your administrative stuff on days 1/2, nothing productive gets done until there is a weekend for people to pickup anything that they failed to get before school, etc.
I really think that some rethinking of the American school calendar, built for 18th Century agriculture really needs to be revisited, but that's beyond the scope here. I think more days, less (or no) weekend homework, and less reliance on homework in general would be positive for families. With the norm of dual-working families (or single-working, single parent families), allowing families to have family time over the weekend would be a nice improvement.
I think that being upset about family vacations is unreasonable. Many of the affluence, hard working families that keep these private schools afloat really don't have the ability to take off weeks at a time for trips. The great American road trip remains popular in non-Frum middle class America, less so amongst the affluent where time is extremely valuable. The ability to take a long weekend when the markets/banks/businesses are closed is not outrageous.
JS (hello) · 683 weeks ago
The way it usually works, in my experience, is the wife (who is a stay at home mother) goes with the kids for the extended vacation. The father goes if he can, for whatever portion he can and is often working during the trip. The jobs that afford the ability to take these expensive vacations are the very same jobs that force you to work over the vacations and join your family late or leave your family early.
We had school days after holidays, but there were always around 10% or so of kids that were out on that day due to extended vacations in Aruba or Vail or whatever.
Guestonymous · 682 weeks ago