School Starts on August 1st

[DriVer]

In some Horry County schools in South Carolina school begins on August 1st. Apparently this trend is growing in popularity with the students! The students tell News sources that they have had their 6 weeks off from school and they are ready to go back.

According to school officials, students have the same amount of mandated schools days during the year however in between semesters the kids will typically have 2 weeks to 3 weeks off. It is the opinion of the school officials that this keeps the kid's heads into going to school and ramping up to get back into a study mode is a lot easier. Mom & dad love the schedule because for the first time they can more easily plan for vacations.

In other countries around the world, children go to school practically all year round with a lot less time off. I am of the opinion that our children are the key to our continued success for the future and their education should be something that we should place as one of our highest priorities in comparison to other countries that are trying to surpass the US in technology.

Would the school year in your opinion be better for our kids in keeping their heads into learning without the conventional extended summer vacation schedule?

What's your opinion?

[heyaim]

I've been for year round school for years! My youngest is a sophomore now, so I doubt I will ever get to enjoy it! I feel it would help the kids retain information. The nearly 3 month summer vacation is too long! Kids get bored, lazy....which usually leads to trouble.

Honestly, my overall reasoning is personal and selfish!! I work for a pool/spa company. Needless to say, we can't take vacation time during the summer months! So the only times we can go on vacation with the kids is during spring break (which is so busy everywhere you can go and airfare is expensive) or Christmas break. So no, we don't get to go on vacation often.

2-3 weeks out of school periodically through the year sounds like heaven!

[dieselclacker]

Years ago when my kids were all in elementary school, the school district tried year around school for a couple of years. This was done in an effort to make better use of the school facilities, since there seemed to be at the time more kids than facilities. Twelve months use with smaller class sizes seemed to make more sense than nine month useage with larger classes. The whole episode turned out to be a complete fiasco for various reasons. For me I remember scheduling a vacation was almost impossible. I had four kids in school at the time. The school year was set up as I recall in four different tracks,(instructional periods per year). Each track had a few days off every couple of months, and one long period of about six weeks off per school year. Invariably, I could never get all the kids on the same track, so scheduling for vacation was a real hassle. Seems also the kids friends and buddies could never get on the same time frame of instruction, and were never happy with the situation. Parents never liked this program, and it was given up after a couple of years. New funding was found, bussing children across town (remember) to other schools and districts was just beginning etc.
My daughter is a high school english teacher. Her school district is kicking around the idea of beginning the school year a couple of weeks earlier than it is now. Thier reasoning is so they can finish the first semester of instruction at the time the Christmas break begins. As it is now the kids come back to school after being off on holiday break for two plus weeks, only to be faced with a lot of cramming for final exams etc. for the end of the semester which is about the third week in January. A very hectic time for teachers also.
Anyway, back to the subject, I think if the kids are tired and bored with too much summer time off from school, an early beginning of school would be a good thing. I agree too much time off leading to boredom can sometimes lead a child to trouble. I would be for it if I still had kids in school.

Dieselclacker

[RVThere]

In NJ, back to school has always coincided with Labor Day.

My youngest is a high school junior and he starts school relatively early for NJ - Aug. 25. Timing has nothing to do with budgets but standardized testing. His high school wants to score higher so the extra two weeks of instruction before the tests helps their scores.

There are ways to keep kids occupied during the summer - get a job or complete the long list of chores around the house. They also have required summer reading from school, have taken summer classes like robotics. My youngest is now in WY taking a 3 week class in rock climbing. He comes back for 4 days and then we take a Scout backpacking trip to NM.

Heck, if they have school yearround, I won't get all the jobs around the house done or do fun trips!

[Ray,IN]

Year-around school is a good idea, however it must be customized for each school district, with input from the parents at school board meetings. I'm assuming parents do care enough to attend though. I agree, children of different ages attending school do present a logistical problem for scheduling family vacations.

[kendall69]

My poor daughter just got screwed out of a month of vacation. Her last school ended June 20, now he new school starts Aug. 20. Her last school starts Sept 20.

She not a happy camper.

[JimM68]

I can't get used to it. We went to school from labot day to the first week of june. My kids go from the third week of august to sometime in may.

No to year round school. Summer is camping season around these parts.