Today is a special occasion for academic “firsts”:
- the first final exam of our school year at HMS/HSDM (I’m not counting the 14-question online quiz for nutrition; this one had a rock-solid 30)
- the first medental assessment I’ve ever taken on a scantron (oh the flashbacks!)
- the first real day of K-12 schooling for MANY American children and teachers!
It’s a bit strange to take a cumulative exam and picture students being dismissed from gradeschool having just met their teachers that morning, but that’s what happens when Harvard bundles teensy-tiny topics like HUMAN DEVELOPMENT into just 3 class sessions. Let’s call it efficient. Another appropriate description would be insane. Your choice.
Most of my own school years have started well before Labor Day, yet I couldn’t find out online how much of America still adheres to this traditional (INCREDIBLY GENEROUS) calendar start. Some states, like Virginia, seem to be recognizing a Labor Day school-start as restrictive for students who are expected to reach the same end-year academic outcomes as neighboring states with more conservative summer lengths. Apparently old-standing legislation makes it difficult for ‘progressive’ school districts to bump up the days in their school year.
At the same time (literally), many states seem to be generating legislation to HALT the melting of summer breaks, as all those uppity schools keep trying to teach kids more and more… what will they think of next! The selfishness! It’s also undeniably creepy that “tourism” is propped as a top reason for keeping schools from opening in August. Good luck, Pennsylvania. No offense, but the only PA tourism opportunity that comes to mind is Hershey Park - which we DID visit in 4th grade. And, snobbiness intended, your tourism website is annoying.
WOULDN’T IT BE NICE IF WE HAD A STRONGER SET OF NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICIES TO SOLVE THESE SIMPLE ISSUES? Get to it, administration!
I did heart Obama’s speech, or at least the version I read. It’s a step in the right direction, but when you have as many states saying ‘HAIL, LABOR DAY!’ as are saying ‘HEAR YE: LONGER SCHOOL YEARS!’ it isn’t hard to come up with some simple starting points for intervening on behalf of our public schools.
