No More Summer Vacation?
Yesterday, I was talking with a friend of mine who teaches P.E. in a middle school. I was surprised to discover that he was on vacation for two weeks starting this week. We teach in the same city so I was a bit flummoxed that I was still teaching and he was not.
It turns out he works at a school that is trying out a modified schedule (I won’t scare people by using the misnomer, “year-round school”). Most schools have ten weeks of summer vacation, but on the modified schedule schools may have four to six weeks of summer vacation.
A shorter summer vacation means longer winter and spring breaks, as well as an early autumn break.
Since I live in a frigid and dark climate in winter, I have a harder time going to work when it’s cold. Waking up between 5:30 and 6:00 isn’t as easy as it is in the summer when it is bright and warm. In winter I’m not as anxious to shoot out of bed to step on a cold floor. I’d just assume stay toasty warm under my mountain of blankets. With that in mind, it wouldn’t bother me to work more in the summer and less in the colder and darker months. Now if I lived in a warmer state I would categorically reject any form of a modified schedule. In a warmer climate, I would not hesitate to use the pejorative phrase, “year-round school.” If I head out to more temperate climes, I’ll let you know, and I will fight any attempts to make any school “year-round” since I would need my summers to bike and surf.
Research
If, however, students don’t have the means or desire to take advantage of the time they have over summer break to pursue studies outside of school, the best bet is a modified schedule to keep everyone sharp.
Does anyone teach at a school with a modified schedule? For those that don’t teach at schools with modified schedules, what objections would you raise if you found out that your school was going to implement such a schedule starting 2010-2011? If there was to be a vote at your school, what arguments would you make for or against a modified schedule? What happens to students who need to take summer school at a modified schedule school? Do they get no summer vacation at all then? Students, how do you feel? Parents? I suppose no summer break wouldn’t be so bad if Mark Harmon
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