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fall break
- Thread starter bluecat
- Start date
tsutcli
Beach Fanatic
Between all the week-long+ breaks ( spring, winter, fall ), summer vacation and long week-ends through-out the year, when do the kids find time for, dare I say it, school? Is this a result of teacher union negotiations or what? Maybe this has contributed to the generally poor performance of our gov't schools in turning out world-class students.
Beach Runner
beats on hood
I'll speak for our county. Our students have more class days than in the past. Their summer break is shorter and Christmas break is shorter. When the MLK birthday became a holiday, that made classes move to even earlier August.
If you aren't a teacher, you can't imagine how long it takes to grade papers and get the students' end-of-term grades turned in. Prior to all of these breaks, teachers had to use their evening and weekend time to do their end-of-term grading. The breaks give teachers paid time to do work that would otherwise be done during their personal time.
That being said, because of the economy, many administrators are looking at longer school days and Monday-Thursday classes to reduce costs (power, sustainability by reducing fuel comsumption by school employees' and bus fuel costs by 20%). Both of these proposals are pretty controversial in GA.
Also as you might have heard, teachers/administrators in Atlanta have been fired for doctoring students' standardized tests. Why were they tempted to do this? Because pay raises became dependent on students' standardized test scores, and if you teach in a low-income area with parents who are illiterate or non-existent, you can't possibly compete with teachers who teach in a high-income area with well-educated parents. It's 100% wrong for teachers to cheat (understatement of the year), but I can understand why they were tempted to do so due to lack of equity.
Personally I feel that it is crazy to start school the first week in August due to the waste of energy during the hottest time of the year. I think we should go back to starting school after Labor Day for that reason.
As far as world-class education, I am a professor who teaches future math and science teachers. It's amazing how low the bar is for their qualifications to teach in these areas. Many of the brightest in these areas choose to go to industry or go on to graduate school for more lucrative careers.
Many will disagree with me, I'm sure. That's cool. There are usually at least two sides to every issue.
Bluecat, IMO fall break is the best time to come to SoWal. The Gulf is still warm. So much better than spring break when the Gulf is still cold. I'll be here fall break.
Kurt
Admin
Beach Runner
beats on hood
I agree.What I think she meant to say was "hurray!!!! Have a great time in SoWal"!
Bluecat-welcome to 30A fall season-yes it's uncrowded, water is clearer, ...I wonder how often i can make it down Hmmmm...
As for break many teachers i know like the old long summer breaks for their own sake but see losses in learning for the kids-i actually had a college student in the library -pre opening day! going through her old classes to get back on track so she doesn't start out "lazy" -her words -great kid!
As for the other issues-I'm not about to get into that-that's what i come to sowal to escape-not sure if we can ever get folks to negotiate a real solution.
As for break many teachers i know like the old long summer breaks for their own sake but see losses in learning for the kids-i actually had a college student in the library -pre opening day! going through her old classes to get back on track so she doesn't start out "lazy" -her words -great kid!
As for the other issues-I'm not about to get into that-that's what i come to sowal to escape-not sure if we can ever get folks to negotiate a real solution.
Beach Runner
beats on hood
Ditto.
That's the main reason why we decided to not spend a few thousand dollars for season tickets to Georgia Tech football games this year. We missed too many games last season due to being at the beach. Our daughter (a Georgia Tech alumna) and our son-in-law (a Georgia Tech alumnus and grad student) DON'T LIKE COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!! The apple fell far from the tree in this case! They live an easy walk from Grant Field, but aren't interested in tailgating or going to a game, even with club level tickets. I just don't understand.
So we'll watch the games at home or at whatever establishment in SoWal that has TVs. :roll: