Can anyone tell me why we here in Arizona have school start in early August?
Some schools begin in late July! With everyone. especially school districts, concerned about money, why aren’t districts looking at the energy costs to operate a school during these extremely hot months? Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to start school after Labor Day when it is still warm, but not 115 degrees with 50-plus percent humidity?
I realize it would push the school year into June, but June is better weather than August. It may be over 95 degrees, but the humidity level is under 15 percent. It must cost a small fortune to cool an entire school when it is so unbelievably hot/humid out.
No one has ever been able to tell me why we start school during the height of the monsoon season... I just hear that it has always been this way. If this is our answer to anything to do with education, then we are in bigger trouble than I thought.
Dianne Szonn
Mesa
Dale Whiting posted at 9:34 am on Wed, Aug 29, 2012.
Dianne,
Perhaps our several school teacher contributors can give you more definative answers. Here in Chandler, we start earlier to have longer mid term and holiday breaks. And I think we have a few estra days. Running classes in the hotter weather does require more air conditioning. But shortening the summer break does help prevent loss of recall from the prior year. It puts a bit of a strain on family vacation scheduling and shortens the time teachers can take during summer recess to go back to school themselves.
So no doubt, it's a compromise, a compromise based on what appears to be best for the kids. I pick the kids. How about you?
Arizona Willie posted at 10:27 am on Wed, Aug 29, 2012.
I figured this was a letter from a kid who didn't want to go back to school [smile]
Much more fun to be around the pool.
VofReason posted at 1:22 pm on Wed, Aug 29, 2012.
It has not always been this way. I grew up here and we didn't start until after labor day and got out in June. The quick answer is that most educators have zero business sense and it isn't their money anyway. Do remember this when every city comes out with their bond proposals and the endless pleas more money. Prevent loss of recall- please. Why did this work for oh the first 100 years of education and somehow now has hit a sppedbump. Just the latest reason to try to avoid parent involvement as the cultprit.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 1:43 pm on Wed, Aug 29, 2012.
Dear Letter Writer,
Your letter is "too much like right" (old GI saying). Funny how having a 3month Summer Vacation never affected the "loss of recall" for all of the students before 1970. Maybe, just maybe it was because we learned by rote and from blackboards and were taught by "teachers" instead of Today's "Mr. Kotter's" and "Miss Jean Brodie's" who "mentor" instead of teach. It's kind of hard for today's "mentors" to command the authority to control a classroom when they have blue or spiked hair, when they have 1' earplugs streatching out their earlobes, when they have body-piercings, when they have tattooes, when they are wearing the same clothes as their teenaged students.
Charter schools are doing so well because there is order in the classroom. Their teachers look like teachers, modestly dressed and conservatively groomed. Discipline is enforced, not excused. There are not "Teachers Union" members in Charter schools. The teachers from these Charter schools let their abilities talk for them, not their Teacher's Union Reps.
DemocraticDad posted at 8:09 pm on Wed, Aug 29, 2012.
Leon, again I am amazed at your FICTION concerning today's schools. Have you ever thought about writing a novel? With you imagination and thinking on a fantasy level I think you would be great at it!
Arizona Willie posted at 12:33 pm on Thu, Aug 30, 2012.
DemocraticDad --- Leon has a one way connection to this Universe.Facts from our Universe are quite different, and usually the very opposite, of facts in his Universe.
The GOOD news is that Leon confirms the theories of our scientists that there are alternate realities.
The BAD news is that it seems we are unable to communicate with his reality and, it seems, he will never be able to join the reality we all experience.
NASA has a team of scientists trying to figure out how to get messages to penetrate to Leon's reality --- but so far they haven't had any success.
However, ever though we aren't NASA, we keep trying to get through -- hoping that due to the laws of probability and randomization someday one of us will get through to Leon.
DemocraticDad posted at 12:44 pm on Thu, Aug 30, 2012.
Thanks Willie, but from reading Leon's letters and comments over the last few years I think getting struck by lightning is infinitely more probable.
VofReason posted at 1:28 pm on Thu, Aug 30, 2012.
Indeed and maybe the poor abilities of today's students and the statististics about unpreparedness for College is all just a right wing conspiracy. Maybe the kids today are just smarter then the rest of us, but in different ways that cannot be adequately tested by the antiquated methods that we were tested under. Maybe if only the evil rich would pay more of their money into education everything would be great. I mean, it is definitly "for the children" that we are paying every teacher that retired and is still living since the 70s. I am also quite sure that the debased televison entertainment and fact that evry kid must have and constantly communicate with a pocket calculator also has nothing to do with it. Must be something else. Perhaps flouride in the water?
Dale Whiting posted at 8:25 am on Fri, Aug 31, 2012.
Actually guys, NASA is planning to send a rover into Leon's universe. It'll be called "Curiosity 2" and is being designed to delve into the depths of the unconscious mind. It's dark down there.
VofReason posted at 12:42 pm on Fri, Aug 31, 2012.
Yup, let's keep throwing money at it and hope it goes away. Seems to be working......
smartvoter posted at 10:58 am on Sat, Sep 1, 2012.
Leon does make a good point about the education these kids are getting now days.
I was at a fast food place the other day, gave the girl a $20 dollar bill and before I could get the change out of my pocket she rang it up, the register showed her what change to give me then I handed her the 47cents and it blew her mind. She looked around as if she needed the manager to fix it.
They can't even make change for a dollar.
Tookie88 posted at 10:22 pm on Sat, Sep 1, 2012.
@leon: What school do you see teachers like you described? Also, did you know that Arizona is a right to work state? There really is no union here for teachers...it is more of an association, which has ZERO power in regards to teachers and education. Trust me, if they had a union, they wouldn't be paying over $950 a month for healthcare for their family, not need a second job to make ends meet, and would actually get paid for the extra work they have to do beyond their school/job responsibilities.
Also, charter schools hire anyone with a degree...they don't need require any training or credentials. Charter schools receive public funds are not as closely audited as public schools...in fact, I think they take more money away from public schools causing more budget issues in the long run. Also, I have seen it time and time again that students return to public schools after the 100 days of school...the magic number for funding schools. Once the charter schools get their money, they will literally drop underperforming students telling parents that the school isn't the right fit for their child. Then these students are dumped back into public school and count towards the public school's AIMS score. Expect to see this more and more when pay is attached to student performance. Also, charter schools do turn students away if they suspect they will not score well or are learning disabled. To top it off, students that come from a poorly run charter school are not up to grade level.
I understand parents wanting the best education for their children, but not all charter schools are great and many close down in a few years.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:04 pm on Sun, Sep 2, 2012.
John C. Fremont High School, 5959 So. San Pedro Ave, South-Central Los Angeles, California. Male teachers were called Mister and wore suits or sport coats, not a tattoo or ear ring in sight.. Female teachers were still called Miss or Mrs. and wore conserative dresses, make-up, groomed hair, perfume, nylons and high heels. When a teacher entered a classroom the students stood up and only sat down when the teacher said "Class be seated". Students were never called by their first names. It was Mister So-and-so or Miss So-and-so.
It was a "closed" campus. If classes were in session you had to have a "Hall Slip" to be walking around. Classes started at 7:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm. I had 7 subjects every semester (College Prep) and at 3:00 pm had either the Newspaper or Student Council Meetings. I carried 5-6-7 books home every day after school for homework and on week-ends.
Back in those days (late 1950's, early 1960's) students went to school to study and learn not to socialize. There was no "graffiti" and not "litter" either. Teachers "earned" their salaries by teaching not by mentoring. If a student needed help, that's what the Counselors were there for. Discipline was handed out by the Boy's or the Girl's Vice-Principals and yes, there was corporal punishment (swats for the boys....girls were hit on the palms of their hands with a wooden ruler). There were no suicides but being that it was a "Ghetto" School, there were Gang (Crips, Bloods, Slauson and Florence 13) fights and one stabbing that I remember. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's were called in and used their nightsticks freely to break up the fight.
Great School, lots of School Spirit and sports participation (we would have up to 1000 spectators for our Football Games). Not an empty seat in the Basketball Court for a game.
Now it is 99% Hispanic (about 70% Illegal Alien) and toilets, sinks, and urinals are destroyed on a weekly basis. Welcome to the 3rd World.
Tookie88 posted at 5:55 pm on Sun, Sep 2, 2012.
@Leon...that is all very interesting, but you avoided answering my questions about your previous comments.