posted July 12, 2008
I recently learned that my children's 2008-2009 school year begins Aug. 12. Could someone please explain to me how it makes any sense at all to begin the school year so incredibly early?
I've done a list of the pros and cons of beginning so early. There are more reasons to not begin so early. Now, some people say it's important to begin school early, because children can lose some of what they learned all year long over the summer. That's when the parents need to step up to the plate to keep that from happening. There is a workbook called Summer Bridge. It's wonderful. It helps keep your child's math, science, English, etc skills sharp over the summer. It's not that difficult to get your child to do one page a day. If children do this workbook, and their required summer reading, it will be a very easy transition from summer break back into the classroom. And they will keep most if not all of what they learned over the school year.
Beginning school in early august is about the dumbest idea I've seen so far from Hamilton County. Summers around here are hard, especially with the current drought, we all know that. How many times have we seen on the news that certain schools had to miss several days of class at the beginning of the school year, because their air conditioning doesn't work, or because their water isn't working? I haven't yet seen any school buses become equipped with air conditioning, so how is it safe to be carting children all over Hamilton County in 90 degree heat (sometimes higher), in vehicles that have no air conditioning? It's also usually too hot for their physical education classes to be conducted outside.
Public Schools up north do not start until after labor day. Some of you might argue that they get out much later for summer break. No, they actually don't. They get out usually around the second week of June, (while still having fall and winter breaks during the school year.) That's only a couple of weeks difference. Considering the public schools up north far outrank us in public education, you think maybe they know some things we don't? Do the research for yourselves. Tennessee is ranked 50th in the entire nation for public education. Hamilton County is ranked dead last in the entire state of Tennessee for public education. So basically, that means we are one of the worst school systems in the entire country. That's not something I personally want to brag about, so it's time to completely overhaul the entire system, including this ridiculous practice of beginning school in the middle of summer.
During the early weeks of school, my children come home exhausted, overheated and usually dehydrated. Oftentimes their school's air conditioning doesn't work, and they aren't allowed to get drinks of water except during certain times of the day. And honestly, what child looks forward to going to sleep when it's still light outside? We tried beginning the school year early, I wasn't against trying it. It obviously is a bad idea. Other parts of the country still begin school after labor day, and it obviously has worked well for them. How has beginning school in the middle of summer worked for us at all? It hasn't.
Ryan Mitchell
Chattanooga
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As a teacher in Hamilton County I feel that I know enough to give you an informed response to your question. I am not arguing for or against our current system, but just want to bring up some things that you may not have considered in your original message.
The state of Tennessee and the United States Department of Education require all students to go to school for 180 days each year. No matter where you live each American schoolchild must be in school 180 days. That isn't going to change, trust me. If anything our illustrious lawmakers might even push it up to 200 days to try and "close the gap" between American kids and kids in Europe and Asia. There really is not much of a gap, but that is another issue for another day.
So, if we have to be in school 180 days, the question is "when do you want the off time?" Some schools start after Labor Day and go until the middle of June. Hamilton County starts about three weeks before Labor Day, but gets out with about a week left in May. So when would you rather have those three weeks? At the end of May and start of June when the temps are still reasonable, or at the end of August when it is so hot that the Devil himself just wants to be inside? I would rather my kids have the time off when it is still cooler so that they can enjoy the time outside.
You mentioned the difference in how schools up North start after Labor Day. That actually is beneficial for them because of the climate that they are in. In most of New England, and the Midwest, August is pretty hot, but then September temps start coming down pretty quickly. That means if we start schools at the beginning of September then there are only a few weeks to deal with hot temps, and even then the worst days are behind you. Not so down in the South. In our sub-tropical climate, September is almost as hot as August, with major cooling not coming until the beginning of October. Down here even if we started after Labor Day, we would still have to deal with about a month of continued hot weather. Last year our softball team had just as many "heat days" in September as we had in August.
There is one final thing that hasn't even been addressed here, and that is how the positioning of the break affects student achievement, and most importantly behavior. I teach middle school, specifically, Hixson Middle School. If anyone has taught middle school or high school, they will tell you that once you get to May kids have mentally "checked out". They are done. It is nice outside; Spring Fever is in full swing. When Hamilton County is done May 20th that kid that just wanted to get done with school so that they could start the summer is happy. Now imagine someone telling that kid that he/she is going to have to endure three more weeks of school. And we wonder why discipline issues grow exponentially in May?
Also the state of Tennessee sets the time each year when we have to give our T-CAP tests. These are the tests that determine NCLB status and gauge a student's progress over that school year. That date is not going to change. So if we backed school starting up three weeks that in effect gives all the teachers three weeks 'less' time to teach their kids all the stuff they have to know. Kids would learn less, and more schools would go "on-notice" for lower scores.
Moving the times would translate into kids learning less, and getting into more trouble. In the end, isn't what is best for kids, not what is best for adults, our goal? It should be. We do so many things that aren't good for kids already, let's not add one more.
Todd Grainger
8th grade U.S. History
Hixson Middle School
todd_grainger@yahoo.com
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Mr. Mitchell,
While I may agree with you on many of your points, I can't let your statistics go unchallenged. From where did you pull the 50th ranking in the nation and based on what criteria? According to the American Legistative Exchange Council's 2007 Report Card on the Nations Education Systems, Tennessee's overall ranking is 38: On the NAEB scores, grade 8 math ranked 41, grade 4 math ranked 43, grade 8 reading ranked 35, grade 4 reading 38; ACT composite scores ranked 36; SAT composite scores ranked 13; expenditures per student ranked 44; pupil/teacher ratio ranked 36; average salary for instructional staff ranked 31. Mississippi is still number 50.
While 38th is not great, there is no reason to mislead by exaggerating the facts and, as Sgt. Friday always said, "Just the facts, ma'm, just the facts."
Stew Clark
Signal Mountain
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I was saddened to read Mr. Grainger's comment about needing more days of student instruction to close the academic gap between American and European students. Maybe European students perform better on standardized tests because their educational system actually tests retention and not regurgitation.
I have been told one of the reasons to start the school year in early-August is to allow the first semester to end before the winter break. We wouldn't want our kids enjoying a vacation, returning to school for a few weeks and then taking exams. This, I'm told, would hurt test scores.
But, in Europe, students take exams at the end of the year, a month after classroom instruction has ended.
Before we start trying to blame the number of days in school on academics and try to scare people into supporting early-August school start dates we need to understand the issue and read the years of research.
Mariah Smith
Red Bank
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(Note to all the teachers reading this: I am not trying to get the spell checker going, or the grammar checker)
OK, I get the 180 days. Take away fall break there are way more in-service days throughout the year than there every were when I was in school.
What about football? I remember nice cool evenings watching high school play football. I think that it’s very dangerous for these athletes to be out there in 90 degree weather playing football, with all that equipment on, it bad for the fans too.
School should start after Labor Day. There are so many good reasons, these are the only ones I can think of this minute.
Annabelle Allen
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