Remember the day?
Remember the days when you were kids and you knew you were headed back to school when Labor Day started to approach?? And I always loved the fact that just as school started, you automatically got a long weekend.
Well living in Central Florida means our children go back to school in EARLY August. Many of you parents will know exactly what I mean. August 1st for some kids in Seminole county for 2006 and Orange to follow about a week later. It’s a norm here, rather than the exception. It’s odd to have children starting school when summer is clearly in full swing.
I found the following article from the Sentinel:
A drive by parents to push back the start of the school year in Florida has caught the interest of state lawmakers, who may take up the “save our summers” cause this year.
A South Florida group began a campaign this past summer for a school calendar that preserves July and August for vacation, not homework.
They were fed up with sending their kids back to class when the calendar, and the weather, clearly said summer. This year, some Florida districts opened school as early as Aug. 1. All 67 were in session by Aug. 15.
Bills filed in the Florida Legislature would change that by forbidding schools from starting earlier than seven days before Labor Day. That would prevent classes from starting before Aug. 28 for the coming school year.
I’m all for it. Every year my kids go to visit granparents in the summer, and it’s a big thing to try to get them up there when they can be with cousins who don’t go back to school until September and yet my children have to be back home by the end of July so we can do the back to school shopping and meet the teacher, etc.
I realize this means they won’t get out before Memorial Day like they do now, but I think getting out the first of June and going back closer to the first of September is more desirable. It’s much less hot at the end of May than it is August 1st.
Interesting to watch and see what happens.
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I remember when I went to school (a few decades ago) that our school year always started a week before Labor Day and ended around the 10th of June. I don’t think longer school years are the answer for better educated kids. I think more teachers, smaller class sizes and more parents getting active in their kid’s lives would serve the purpose better. Longer school years, I think, just make the kids feel more like prisoners of the system, rather than inspire them to learn.
I’m all for it, too. However, I’m not going to hold my breath. Whichever way works just fine for my family.
We are very happy with what are summers are like now…We still have time to go to all the activities we would go to if the summer did go to September. The people who do take time out of school to go on vactions and to family activities will still take the time of of school even if the did have until September.
Thank you,
Two 8th grade Students
coolcoolhu http://4allfree.com/cgi/gb.id?coolhu coolhu
As we talk about starting classes later “for the coming school year,” has anyone considered the hundreds of Florida teachers who have not planned financially to be without a salary for an extra month?
Point taken. And not just the teachers, what about the parents who have to find things for their kids to do for the summer. I’m lucky that I can work from home, so it doesn’t affect me so much, but I remember when I used to have to arrange for babysitters and camps and daycare. It’s an expense some parents may not be realizing they face.