Year round schools?

[LegalEagle50]

News story found here.

Discuss, debate, be ######, be encouraged, be something.

This is going to effect drum corps more IMO than the G7/World Series of Drum Corps will.

[luvs me sum mello!]

I'm an Obama fan, but longer does not = better. I think the same amount of time spread more evenly over the year would be better as long as we focus on the quality of the instruction.

As far as how it will effect DCI...who knows...

[CrownStarr]

Frankly, drum corps aside, I think that's a ridiculous idea. Improving the quality of the teachers and getting kids and parents to have the right attitude and enthusiasm towards education will do far more than making them stay in the same broken system for another month.

[HappyDad]

As I have read on here with interest lately, most seasons do not start until the third week of June and the season ends on the second week of August. The drum corps season looks to be seven weeks currently. So if school started the third week of August and ended the first week of June, that would give the extra month for school and not cut the season short. However, most groups would not have their marching all ready for the beginning of the season. I have seen some groups not ready now even though it is a week or two later.

[LegalEagle50]

As I have read on here with interest lately, most seasons do not start until the third week of June and the season ends on the second week of August. The drum corps season looks to be seven weeks currently. So if school started the third week of August and ended the first week of June, that would give the extra month for school and not cut the season short. However, most groups would not have their marching all ready for the beginning of the season. I have seen some groups not ready now even though it is a week or two later.

Different states start and finish at different times. You are actually incorrect in your thinking as far as the northeast goes. NJ. NY and CT are currently going to the last week of June and starting either right before or after Labor Day. So your thoughts MIGHT work in the mid-west and south and west but your example won't work out this way. That's why when I saw the article I thought that's the end of any high schooler's involvment as well as many staff members.

[acolli17]

Frankly, drum corps aside, I think that's a ridiculous idea. Improving the quality of the teachers and getting kids and parents to have the right attitude and enthusiasm towards education will do far more than making them stay in the same broken system for another month.

I'm not trying to call you out on anything, but did you read the article? It says the president is also pushing to get better, higher quality teachers. Keep the good ones, help the bad ones be better, and if they don't get better, then they need to be taken out.

[CrownStarr]

I'm not trying to call you out on anything, but did you read the article? It says the president is also pushing to get better, higher quality teachers. Keep the good ones, help the bad ones be better, and if they don't get better, then they need to be taken out.

I did after I made my initial post. Unfortunately, I think a longer school year is much more feasible to implement than improving the teaching quality. Evaluating the quality of a teacher is a fairly (but not completely) subjective task, and we have a hard enough time finding enough teachers to begin with without starting a wave of firing the incompetent ones. On the other hand, to extend the school year, you (essentially) just need enough money to pay the extra expense. Because of that, I think we're far more likely to see an extended school year than a revolution in teaching quality.

The other problem is that if we just get a lengthened school year without improving the teaching, I think it could easily be detrimental to the quality of education. On the other hand, improving the teaching itself without changing the length of the year would certainly be a help. I think the best move would be to both improve the quality of teaching and move to a year-round school setup, with smaller breaks instead of a huge 3 month summer vacation. Unfortunately, that would effectively kill off the possibility of DCI for high-schoolers. Is that worth the gain that would come from a year-round school system? I'm not sure. However, much as I love drum corps, I know that I would much sooner take a better education system for everyone at the cost of DCI for a few, rather than the other way around.

Edited September 27, 2010 by CrownStarr

[Jeff Ream]

stop teaching kids on how to pass a test and teach kids about subjects and life. you dont need an extra month for that.

[TerriTroop]

It's not how many days in the classroom, it's how well we help students build up layers of information and flexible thinking to become creative problem solvers as adults. I could go on and on, but I firmly believe our current system is antiquated and underperforming due to a lack of conviction to examine new learning systems and adapt to the needs of the modern child and family.

Many parents are not asked to be educational partners, and they only get calls (or, more likely, emails) when there are problems in the classroom with their child. That's a shame, because partnering to educate our children should be pretty high on our to-do list. But our culture, and our school system, have made it hard to do that. Schools are too big, especially in the lower grades, and it is hard to make a connection to a teacher when they only work with your child for a single year. And since we no longer have a lifestyle that can be supported by a single-income household, parents are not often able to be more present for their children. (I fall into that category as well, being a full time teacher with a full-time working spouse.) There is a fantastic book called "You Are Your Child's First Teacher." The title alone says it all, and I encourage anyone who would like to start building a new educational model take a look at it. It's kind of esoteric, but it's worth the effort.

Ack - sorry about the long rant. This is definitely a touchy subject for me. Now, back to drum corps:

I've thought for years that the drum corps medium will have to shift fully toward college-aged membership because our education system is eventually going to try to model itself after what they think are more successful programs abroad. Of course, it's not likely that the powers that be will take cultural differences into account. Sadly, it won't work unless they overhaul the actual WAY we teach instead of just how many days we teach.

[kdaddy]

I'm a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell, and he makes a point (citing research) in his book Outliers about summer vacation - it's a bad thing.

Parents who are wealthy (or comfortable) tend to be in the lives of their children more, and parents who are poor tend to not be. There are, of course, exceptions, but this is a general rule. In wealthy homes, kids spending the summer at home doesn't have a detrimental effect - those parents nourish their children's brains over the summer. But in poorer homes, kids don't have that summer support. They regress after three months of hanging out.

As a college faculty member, I see it every fall. Students often forget material from prerequisites taken the previous spring, though they often gain different knowledge in the form of summer classes or internships.

I'd love to see another month of classes, especially in junior high and less - drum corps be danged.