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4-day school weeks gain popularity across US

Discussion in 'General News' started by damanali, Jun 6, 2010.

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  1. damanali

    damanali Well-Known Member

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_re_us/us_four_day_school_week

    This is excellent news for the students and teachers. If attendance and grades are going up while cost are going down, then I'm really approving this.

    My only concern is about the people who are earning a day-to-day basis, they are unpaid for 1 day and it will cause a huge impact on their family and lives. I dont know how teachers are paid in the US, but the public schools here are paid twice a month, 15/30 setup.

    There could also be concern on what the students might do on their 3-day break, they could loiter around, or do something else that should be focused on their education... its could also spell more homeworks and projects for the students...

    What are your thoughts about this?
     
    damanali, Jun 6, 2010
    #1
  2. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    I imagine most teachers in the US are salaried, that is they're paid monthly and its not really linked to the number of hours they do.

    There's one school in the UK that only teaches during the afternoons (no mornings at all), and apparently that has been beneficial as far as grades are concerned. The headteacher's reasoning is that teenagers function better during the afternoons.
     
    Loonylion, Jun 6, 2010
    #2
  3. damanali

    damanali Well-Known Member

    From my observation here, the students mostly likes the morning schedule from 7-10, but 10-12 and 1-2pm is hell...2-5 in the afternoon are also better because they feel cooler even though they don't have airconditioners and only use electric fans...some just use windows and God-given air breeze.

    In my senior year in High School, we have a early dismissal on Fridays, maybe because of upgrading Teacher standards seminars on that day..but i didn't feel any improvement on my grades or my school mates for that matter.
     
    damanali, Jun 6, 2010
    #3
  4. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    In your school you have to consider how the temperature affects student performance, in the UK that isn't really an issue, since we don't generally experience high enough temperatures to interfere with concentration.

    I think finishing early on fridays is fairly standard, though I imagine the reasons are different. The term structure at my school was also different from the rest of the country. We had longer holidays than other schools, but less of them. We always got a fortnight at least. whereas the rest of the country has a one week holiday mid term. our terms were correspondingly shorter than the rest of the country, but we had more terms in the school year. When the country was on their mid term break, we were either still in school or having our end of term break. The reasons for this were because we were a boarding school, we had students from all over the country and even some from other countries (such as India). We had shorter terms to make boarding easier, and longer holidays to spend more time with our families, who some of us didn't see for weeks and even months at a time. Additionally, with a one week midterm, someone from say India would only end up spending 3-4 days with their family because of all the time they spent travelling. I was one of the relatively lucky ones, I only lived an hour away by car so I was able to go home at weekends if I wanted to.
     
    Loonylion, Jun 6, 2010
    #4
  5. mds64

    mds64 Well-Known Member

    The only ones missing out are the casual teachers.

    My old school had them, they'd only do a few days (2-3).

    But it seems like a great idea :)
     
    mds64, Jun 6, 2010
    #5
  6. Rayder

    Rayder Well-Known Member

    Aw.....I'm in favor of year-round school. You know, to keep the little smart-asses out of my face and off the streets and out of their parents hair. Don't even let them leave the school except maybe for holidays and then after they graduate. They should also reinstate beatings....err....I mean swats and other physical forms of punishment for bad behavior. Kids that chronically misbehave would go directly from the school to prison once they hit 18.



    Yes, I'm kidding. Sort of....heh, heh. ;D
     
    Rayder, Jun 7, 2010
    #6
  7. Natewlie

    Natewlie A bag of tricks

    What the hell, you're not Reider.
     
    Natewlie, Jun 7, 2010
    #7
  8. ace1o1

    ace1o1 Well-Known Member

    I just noticed that too...

    Well, in the US, teachers are paid by salary and not the hours they work.
    And it is based on the number of years you have been teaching as well.
    A new teacher may make anywhere from $30,000 a year to $50,000 a year, while an older teacher may make anywhere from $30,000 to $80,000 a year in the public school system.

    I don't know if this is good for the students or not, but it is beneficial to save money.
    And I don't know what my local school system will do, but I know if I were still in the school, I would want my district to do this. ;D
     
    ace1o1, Jun 7, 2010
    #8
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