For what it's worth, working on the farm in the summer and the rest of the year taught me a lot about responsibility.

i work with school districts that do year round school and tend to enjoy it.

They get a week of spring break, a week of fall break, all of July, and then take from Thanksgiving to New Years off. They also get all of the typical one offs (Memorial, Easter, Columbus, MLK, etc.) It's not a perfect system, but it honestly makes more sense.

I hate the heat and did even in HS, so I'd much rather have a few weeks off in November/December than most of May and August and June and July.

When our entire country switches to an extended break in the winter in a few years, we'll all know that the push started right here on F16.

Where else would something so brilliant begin?

eric76 said:

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AgGrad99 said:

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Quote:

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I always looked forward to school starting again so I could get by without working my ass off all day.

Also, in the summer, pretty much the only time I would see anyone outside my own family was on Sunday mornings for Sunday School and for Church.

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Rough summers for a 9 year old...

But I guess whether its a Summer or Fall break wouldn't have affected you either way.

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There is generally a lot more work in the summer. Other than planting wheat and cutting maize and checking on the cattle and feeding the hogs, the fall was pretty easy.

And winter was pretty much breaking ice for the cattle, feeding the hogs, and welding in the shop.

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Good on you, Sir.

The long summer made sense for several reasons in the past but modern educational and professional realities suggest that school breaks would be better off spread throughout the year. My nieces in Arizona have a more year-round model and seem to really enjoy it.

I've always thought it would be better to shorten summer from 12 weeks to 6, then redistribute those 6 weeks across the year.

Add a week each to Xmas break, spring break and Thanksgiving. Add in quite a few 5 day weekends.

I just think it better aligns to the way humans take breaks and maximize restoration.

AgGrad99 said:

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Too hot to go outside?

Did we all not run around in shorts and a tank top...getting in creeks and making bike ramps to jump? Running around to each other's houses...making forts, playing tag, setting up some street hockey or getting a pickup game of football/soccer/baseball/basketball started?

Never did I think it was too hot to go outside, and if it was...we'd go swimming.

Summers as a kid, were the absolute freaking best.

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Now make it Saudi Arabia and 120F every day and that was most of my summer break.

Ya Allah

(of course it didn't look quite this nice 40+ years ago)

Deerdude said:

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Because taking family to the beach in December would suck

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Australia - Where the bloody hell are you?

In a city like Houston if you have 5 different districts on 5 different schedules it would be absolute chaos at work. I already know anything that does not happen next week will not happen before 2026. I know there will be people present and some things will happen, but anything that requires coordination between more than one person I am giving til about next Wednesday.

PhatMack19 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Deerdude said:

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Because taking family to the beach in December would suck

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There's always skiing.

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Have you priced lift tickets lately? Good lord it's expensive now….

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That's why Mall of the Emirates is such a good value for beginners

Bondag said:

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In a city like Houston if you have 5 different districts on 5 different schedules it would be absolute chaos at work. I already know anything that does not happen next week will not happen before 2026. I know there will be people present and some things will happen, but anything that requires coordination between more than one person I am giving til about next Wednesday.

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Crosby ISD moved to 4/10s (School Monday-Thursday, 10 hours a day) last year and yet has not had a meltdown.

that being said, they did coordinate with local churches and organizations to make sure Fridays were taken care of for what was needed.

HollywoodBQ said:

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PhatMack19 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Deerdude said:

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Because taking family to the beach in December would suck

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There's always skiing.

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Have you priced lift tickets lately? Good lord it's expensive now….

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That's why Mall of the Emirates is such a good value for beginners

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When I did it if I used a certain credit card it was like $50 for 2 hours.

For the OP, when we lived in Highlands Ranch, Colorado in the early 2000s, we had year round schooling in Douglas County.

The way it worked was that there were 4 "tracks" and only 3 "tracks" were in session at any one time.

So it was something like, a couple weeks of common time off during summer and winter. But the rest of the year was like 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off and repeat for 4 terms of that school year.

The tracks were noted A,B,C,D and it would look like this for a 12 week period:
Weeks 1-3 == A,B,C In School, D on Break
Weeks 4-6 == A,B,D In School, C on Break
Weeks 7-9 == A,C,D In School, B on Break
Weeks 10-12 == B,C,D In School, A on Break

What was good:

• The kids got frequent 3 week breaks.
• You could travel during off-peak times.
• The school could theoretically save money by running at 133% of normal capacity

What was bad:

• Challenging if both parents are working.
• Yeah, you can go visit family at off peak times but... they still have school/work, etc. If you go visit your family in Texas in October, they're busy.
• Just like cube farms and hot desking, there literally wasn't enough room to have the entire school student body show up at the same time.
• Susie could get Track A, but her younger brother Bubba could wind up on Track B. And then your entire family schedule is wrecked.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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The long summer made sense for several reasons in the past but modern educational and professional realities suggest that school breaks would be better off spread throughout the year. My nieces in Arizona have a more year-round model and seem to really enjoy it.

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That's because summers in AZ are absolutely brutal and suck beyond awful whereas spring, winter and the 3 weeks of fall are awesome there.

Lost in all of this is the fact that we need to ensure that kids can be kids, which is also a function of a longer summer break. When you start treating kids school like a work environment, you stiffle the ability for kids to have that time as they grow from adolescents to teens to not have the stress and overbearing loads of school on them 12 months out of the year. Kids are not designed to be cooped up in classrooms year round and doing so, IMO, will have negative long term consequences that will likely be larger issues than most realize.

I grew up in Europe in the 80's and this is basically what I had growing up. I like it because kids lose a lot during the summer.

Because tradition.

Some schools do have a year-round schedule with 2-3-week breaks every couple of months instead of one extra-long summer break, but it hasn't caught on.

No, you interrupt the athletic calendar. Lots of kids are in school because of athletics.

Fdsa said:

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I would support this…original reason I believe was because school houses didn't have AC and it was too hot to have kids inside.

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Now they have the A/C, but they don't have the money to pay the electric bill

AgGrad99 said:

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Too hot to go outside?

Did we all not run around in shorts and a tank top...getting in creeks and making bike ramps to jump? Running around to each other's houses...making forts, playing tag, setting up some street hockey or getting a pickup game of football/soccer/baseball/basketball started?

Never did I think it was too hot to go outside, and if it was...we'd go swimming.

Summers as a kid, were the absolute freaking best.

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Yes, this was childhood. Summer is the perfect time for the long break because of beaches, pools, and baseball. The firehose swing over the creek, street hockey, basketball, yard football, skateboards, building your skateboard ramp, go to the corner store to play Mortal Kombat, get hopped up on Dr. Pepper and a Butterfinger, forts, BB guns, baseball games, swimming pool, beaches, or just picking a house to play Nintendo at when it rains.

AgGrad99 said:

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Too hot to go outside?

Did we all not run around in shorts and a tank top...getting in creeks and making bike ramps to jump? Running around to each other's houses...making forts, playing tag, setting up some street hockey or getting a pickup game of football/soccer/baseball/basketball started?

Never did I think it was too hot to go outside, and if it was...we'd go swimming.

Summers as a kid, were the absolute freaking best.

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Nailed it

My son's private school offers classes during the summer. So last summer my son was in "school" doing things like karate, playing chess, rock climbing, basketball, Lego creativity, robotics, tennis, and othet classes. Each class was for a week and was either the first half of the day or last half of the day. That left us with 3 weeks for a vacation. He loved going to "school", and it made it easier on us since we have jobs.

DDP

schmellba99 said:

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Deerdude said:

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Because taking family to the beach in December would suck

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Yeah, try tubing down the Frio or the Comal in December or January. Loads of fun that would be.

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As a fairly new school employee summer is the best thing to ever happen to me!

Logos Stick said:

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So that teachers can have a 3 month vacay!

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Of all people on the planet, they need it. It's brutal to work with kids every day, deal with nutjob parents, administration, politics, etc. You have to throw them a bone or you'll have zero effective teachers.

jja79 said:

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School starts in July in Arizona. They take several breaks when it cools down. When I first moved here I wondered why the school zone lights were flashing the day after July 4.

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I would be 100% on board with this. Start summer break May 1st, end it July 8th or so.

May, June and early July are the best parts of summer.

Late July, August, and early September are brutal.

Take the whole f'ing month of December off. Go home for Thanksgiving, come back on January 2nd.

Add in a whole week around October 1st for fall break, and you pretty much have the same number of school days.

Hell, I think that if a private school started offering this with the school choice money, the population would demand something like this in short order.

TAMU1990 said:

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No, you interrupt the athletic calendar. Lots of kids are in school because of athletics.

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eric76 said:

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IIIHorn said:

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eric76 said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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AC efficiency has changed EVERYTHING. When I was a kid, my parents would SET the AC around 78. On really hot days (above 95), it would only cool to around 80, anyway. Ceiling fans helped, but while inside was most definitely cooler, the marginal difference on normal "hot" days wasn't that great. Especially if you had fairly easy access to a pool like most of us did. We had a community pool, but the city pool was just as close.

Now, I can set my AC at 69 and unless the temp is well over 100, it will get down to ... 69. Plus, while my energy bills are obviously higher during the hotter months, it isn't totally unaffordable for most people. So the desire to stay inside is far greater today than it was 20-40 years ago.

I don't think the schools will ever go to a summer plan until energy costs drop substantially or they build a small nuke power plant behind the school. Regardless of what kids do or don't do during the summer, the energy costs to keep those huge buildings open, not to mention gyms, etc., would absolutely bust their dwindling budgets. School districts, even the ones considered "rich," are closing schools left and right. So unless someone has a great idea of how to pay for the increased costs, the whole summer jobs/vacation/etc. arguments are really a waste of time.

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When I was a kid, we would open the windows.

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You had windows?!

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Yeah.

My grandmother had an air conditioner. The finest evaporative cooler that she could find.

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Was this in a region of high humidity?

HollywoodBQ said:

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For the OP, when we lived in Highlands Ranch, Colorado in the early 2000s, we had year round schooling in Douglas County.

The way it worked was that there were 4 "tracks" and only 3 "tracks" were in session at any one time.

So it was something like, a couple weeks of common time off during summer and winter. But the rest of the year was like 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off and repeat for 4 terms of that school year.

The tracks were noted A,B,C,D and it would look like this for a 12 week period:
Weeks 1-3 == A,B,C In School, D on Break
Weeks 4-6 == A,B,D In School, C on Break
Weeks 7-9 == A,C,D In School, B on Break
Weeks 10-12 == B,C,D In School, A on Break

What was good:

• The kids got frequent 3 week breaks.
• You could travel during off-peak times.
• The school could theoretically save money by running at 133% of normal capacity

What was bad:

• Challenging if both parents are working.
• Yeah, you can go visit family at off peak times but... they still have school/work, etc. If you go visit your family in Texas in October, they're busy.
• Just like cube farms and hot desking, there literally wasn't enough room to have the entire school student body show up at the same time.
• Susie could get Track A, but her younger brother Bubba could wind up on Track B. And then your entire family schedule is wrecked.

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this sounds absolutely idiotic

First I ever saw was when grandpa got a swamp cooler in about 68-70 for ranch house in Encinal. Was in kitchen and only used during the afternoon. Quite the cat's meow

AgGrad99 said:

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Too hot to go outside?

Did we all not run around in shorts and a tank top...getting in creeks and making bike ramps to jump? Running around to each other's houses...making forts, playing tag, setting up some street hockey or getting a pickup game of football/soccer/baseball/basketball started?

Never did I think it was too hot to go outside, and if it was...we'd go swimming.

Summers as a kid, were the absolute freaking best.

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You grew up in the 70's too?

'Too hot to do anything'

If dads can work in the heat, kids can play in it.

Do raise soft kids

itsyourboypookie said:

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'Too hot to do anything'

If dads can work in the heat, kids can play in it.

Do raise soft kids

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That was a callous remark.

I was in Cy Fair ISD as a kid and we tried this while I was in junior high. I thought the whole state tried it. Lasted all of one year.

We have more shorter breaks in Arizona and everyone seems to like it. Being in school in July and August makes sense here.

Apparently northern states do something similar. I live near two enormous youth baseball and soccer complexes and there have been kids from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan here for the last 2 weeks playing tournaments.