I’ve been convinced for a long time that public schools in New York need major calendar reform.<\/p>\n
The current system requires that children be in school a certain number of days. Fair enough.<\/p>\n
But that means a lot of schools schedule a litany of half-days, quarter-days — sometimes it feels like one-sixteenth days.<\/p>\n
I say have school or don’t, but don’t fire up the entire expensive school infrastructure so that kids can squeeze in an hour or two of actual classes before heading home.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the kids are just climbing off the bus, and they’re packing them in again for the ride home.<\/p>\n
The number of days where learning is disrupted by this sort of nonsense seems a little out of control.<\/p>\n
The calendar goofiness is symbolized most weirdly by the Saranac Lake School District’s decision to begin this year’s school season on Friday.<\/p>\n
Yes, that’s right, for kids in this part of the North Country summer ends (in theory) with a one-day hit of school just before the glorious three-day Labor Day weekend.<\/p>\n
That screws up travel plans, work schedules for kids who work in the tourism industry, and it makes absolutely zero educational sense.<\/p>\n
I know that my son Nicholas will be showing up for his first day of school with both feet still firmly planted in summer.<\/p>\n
My guess is a lot of kids will simply be AWOL, and I say go for it.<\/p>\n
I understand that allowing districts to create more responsible schedules would require some changes in Albany, and it’s time to push for that kind of flexibility.<\/p>\n
With the dwindling education dollars that we have, we need to make sure that every day in school is a full day (and whenever possible part of a full week) with full opportunities for learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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