I genuinely feel like school in the US should be year-round but with a set amount of "time-off" teachers and parents can use. That way time off is not so concentrated in the summer, holidays can be celebrated regardless of ethnicity/religion/culture, and the curriculum does not have to be so compressed. I am sure there are a lot of challenges this model will bring up, but it feels a bit more fair.
In the meanwhile though, good on NY for adding Diwali as school holiday! It seems like a lovely celebration that should be enjoyed class-free.
How on earth would that work with curriculum, planning, and actual teaching? I mean, fine for self guided computer school, but that's not the way kids actually learn.
I imagine they can treat absences the same as they currently are. Teachers are told in advance when a child/children will be absent and can plan accordingly. I remember being given notes and the work I was going to miss in advance and needing to catchup. If teachers see that a lot of kids will be absent, they can plan alternate activities. Or maybe for a week a month there will be week long camp at school, which will be easier for students to be absent since they won't miss class.
This is all theory I have not developed out. I would like to hear someone's thoughts on changes to how the US school system runs.
I am not as familiar with the K-12 system, as it's changed a lot since I went through it, but my college students seem to have gone through school with no deadlines and the ability to resubmit any and all work any time they want, with the expectation that they'll get at least 50% just for turning in the assignment (even without their name, lol). So while year-round school with absences whenever might be compatible with this system, it's not particularly compatible with a functioning educational system where the class is being taught as a unit and are more or less learning the same things at the same time.
Additionally, it only works if teachers are completely exchangeable, and are also allowed to take time off whenever. What is likely to actually happen is that teachers will be paid the same but expected to be on call year-round (they're already expected to be on call 24/7 during the year in a lot of places) with no breaks and limited ability to take even sick leave. I'm fully in support of year-round school - I think it's a great idea for a lot of reasons - but I would caution that this type of implementation might be a bit harder to pull off.
IMO, at least, education happens when there's an actual interpersonal relationship between the teacher and the class, as well as between members of the class. This doesn't happen with the app-driven schooling my nephews are completing, where everyone is in a different place and they just follow lessons on a computer all day with teachers as facilitators and not actual instructors. It's why we see massive declines in student motivation - they've lost the relationships that tend to motivate us as humans, and that's a really hard thing to get back. My best classes have been when there are meaningful relationships between me and students, but also between students in the class, and we are all tackling a problem/topic together. There's something about shared suffering, you know?
I agree, relationship building is what makes education impactful. In some states, substitute teaching is on call like that. In NY, subs are assigned to a school and work when there are absences. In NJ, subs can pick from a list of schools that will notify you the morning of for their availability. It is definitely not the greatest system, but it is already in effect, and can be used to cover teacher absences due to time off.
The teachers would still be there a majority of the time, it would just give them flexibility to take time off. And when kids are absent (at least when I was in school, which may be completely outdated as that was over a decade ago), you would just need to catch-up on your own.
I dislike the app approach to education. Shared suffering can make school fun, and as you implied can create BFFLs. With this approach, the kids will still be kept together with the same teachers but with greater flexibility on their time-off and without the imposition of ludricious camp fees and brain drain from summer that affects parents and kids respectively.
Add comment