Does Your School Waste Time at the End of the School Year?

Elementary schools are like this. JR high are still doing actual school work and High School is still having final exams.

I think this is healthy for the age group. The little kids are building memories, learning school can be fun and are being rewarded for hard work. Its something I have to work on not doing work all the time but actually enjoying life too.

IMO, OPINION, so noone kills me, the schools waste time all year. American students are way behind, the teachers are over worked, under paid, and with all the other issues like ESL classes, they have it tough. my oldest is finished with school for the year, shes 17 but technically not for a week. what is she going for? fair day, clean up art room day (today)...and with SOL's they get half day school, but most schools barely pass those tests.

It has always been that way. My entire career in school is blessed with memories of goofing off the 2 weeks before Christmas and the 2 weeks before Summer. Remember that all day goof off track meet they call Field Day? I loved it and so do my kids. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I suggest you get your credential and start working as a teacher so you can see what it's REALLY like.
I planned to become a teacher but after working for three years as a classroom aide I changed my mind.
I loved working with the kids, but between the "one size fits all" mandates from the administration and the demands of know it all parents like you I changed my mind.
Have you thought about homeschooling? Sounds like you'd love that.

Don't you remember being young? Wasn't your school the same way? Mine was, I am 34y/o and the end of school was THE BEST! It is when you get to clean up and PLAY!

Please don't take this away from our kids! They deserve some fun time too!

My 8-year-old has SO much fun at the end of the school year, I would never dream of keeping her home to miss any of that. I work, so the longer she stays in school, the more economical for me, because I have to pay for her to go to summer day-camp during the summer. When I was a kid, some of my favorite memories were of the "time-wasting" at the end of the school year. Reminiscing with friends, saying goodbyes, cleaning out desks, going through journals that you have written in all year, etc. It's a must for every kid, in my opinion. Not everything has to be so serious all the time. Kids just want to have fun, they don't care about tax dollars. I say let them.

I go back and forth all the time with issues like that. On the one hand, my son gets very little instruction at all that's appropriate for his reading level. The whole year has been sort of busywork for him. Math is a little better, but not much. On the other hand, his school has an amazing anti-bullying curriculum. They really develop the kids socially and emotionally as well as academically. My son has gained amazing, unbelievable confidence this year. A kid who's drilled on facts every minute of every school day won't come out with the social skills we all need to survive.

So yeah, I understand your frustration. But I also think it's important to remember that academics are only a fraction of what kids really learn in school.

Wait til high school. The exams will blow you and your kid's behinds out of the water and you'll WISH they'd show a movie or something. Our days are filled with full-throttle going over material for the exams. Wish they had MORE time to put a whole semester's worth of work together with these kids...

I have a feeling that your teachers have already finished the curriculum. When they write their lesson plans, they plan them in a way that gives them wiggle room in case it takes longer for the kids to grasp the material. Sometimes they sail through easier than the teachers expect. If they knew for a fact that they'd finish up early, they would spend longer on certain parts of the curriculum.

Legally the kids have to have a certain amount of time in school. I'm sure they could do better, so have at it with the issue at hand, but at least understand the reason why it's happening. It would be better if they had plans for the end of the school year that were better than movies and extra recess, for sure.

Dawn

Maybe they've already learned what they need for the year and they are just working on "social" skills - and having fun and making memories. There is so little of that left these days - I wouldn't worry about it!
Let kids be kids every once in awhile!

As far as I know, grades have to be turned in 2 weeks before the end of the year so the teachers really can't give any more work because the grades wouldn't count!

If your concern is about FUN, I wouldn't worry about it. The kids deserve some fun and if they've finished all they need to learn, then why take that away?

But if your concern is the kids aren't learning what they need to (which that seems like the case) and they are behind their peers in other districts then it's time to consider private school or homeschool.

We homeschool, and my daughter loves it! She has many social opportunities with our homeschool group. We can usually finish our seat work in 3-4 hours (and that includes things like fun science experiments and outdoor adventures). We "socialize" with other homeschoolers 2 days per week, and she's in other activities 3 days a week. So she sees other kids 5 days a week :)

Something for you to consider, but it's not for everyone.

I wish this were the case at my daughter's school. The first month or so of school was very slow moving...focusing on appropriate behavior and 'orienting' to middle school (she's in sixth grade). In her reading class, they didn't start reading a book until about four weeks in, and then went so slowly she almost forgot what was happening in the beginning of the book by the middle and got disinterested. Now they are trying to cram everything into the last two weeks - doubling up on math assignments, etc. She's been up until about 11:00 PM for the last week or so trying to get everything done and understood. We'd both rather see more push at the beginning of school and more fun towards the end.

Is this elem? Same here.
Mentally, I think the kids are "checked out" anyway...
Overall, I have been impressed with the material that was covered through the school year, though....
It does seem like a waste for them to get up, get dressed and get there only to watch another movie, attend another assembly.....

not saying you should homeschool. it's certainly not for everyone.
but it's a huge misconception to think that involves being home alone with the parent all day.
it's actually not a great name for the educational venue anyway. most of our homeschooling was NOT done at home!
and yes, one of the reasons i did it was because so much time at school gets wasted on busywork, crowd control and froth.
khairete
S.

My husband and I just had a similar conversation. My concern wasn't so much about tax dollars. I just find it silly that the kids must go a certain number of days and any snow days are tacked on. For what? So they can take numerous field trips the last two weeks? (My son just had three-- two of them in one week.) So they can have "field day"? A carnival? A half day? I would rather they just went ahead and let the kids out. If I kept them home during the slacking time then they would miss too many days and I'd be contributing to the truancy of a minors and my kids could be held back. Lovely. :o)

ETA: Sarcasm ahead because I think people got a little harsh with the OP: Oh yeah! The kids need to go to "learn" social skills at the very end of the year because they couldn't have developed them throughout the year and they won't come in contact with any other kids during the summer. No family vacation, outings, family reunions, family gatherings, gatherings in general, making new friends at the park, socializing with kids from church, neighborhood friends, playdates, birthday parties, summer school, day camp, away camp, sports etc... Poor kids. Were it not for the last couple of slacker weeks they would not have any fun during the summer. Boo hoo. Oh and YOU, Sally R, should homeschool rather than voice your opinion about how tax dollars are spent EVEN THOUGH, homeschoolers are not relieved of education taxes. Yeah, that's how a Democracy works; If you think it's broke don't offer up ways to fix it.

Yes. This year, I had the choice of sending the kids to summer camp, or sending them to the last week of school - both of these things fell on the same week. Without hesitation, I signed them up for summer camp. They don't do anything important during that last week of school. We still have 3 weeks of school left, and my kids haven't learned anything new since the beginning of May, when standardized tests happened.

Frankly, it does drive me crazy that the school year is so LONG - we start mid-August, and end mid-June - and yet, the school day is so short. They start school at 8am and are dismissed at 2:30! When I was in school, we went from 8:00 - 3:30, started the school year after Labor Day, and were done for the year by Memorial Day. If budget is such an issue, why doesn't it make sense to make the school day longer and the school year shorter (especially since they don't make good use of the whole school year anyhow)? That way, they don't have to pay for electricity, air conditioning, janitorial, school lunches, etc for 3 months during the summer, rather than 7 weeks like it is now.

But what do I know!

I totally agree with you. I do see the point in having some fun, an end of year picnic, maybe one field trip, not 6 of them. That could be done in 2 days. But this "fun" stuff literally goes on for 2+ weeks. I'm talking about at the elementary school level. My middle school 7th grader is busy with final exams, papers, and academic work until the last day. I will say that if we had an opportunity to travel some year after my older DD gets out (which is earlier than the elementary school), I wouldn't hesitate to pull my younger child out. There is absolutely nothing academic going on at this time year. I often feel like it is free babysitting after Memorial Day, or just marking time to complete the legally required amount of school days. If we did have an opportunity to travel, I would not feel guilty if my DD would miss another movie (which we've seen) or trip to the zoo (which we've been many times). It's kind of like this before major school breaks too, to a lesser extent. I don't feel that guilty pulling her out one day earlier on spring break either and saving thousands on airfares if I know on that day before break they're going to be sitting and watching movies anyway.

Hi, Sally:

School has to be in session 180 days. It is the law.
If you are concerned about the standards, go to the School Board meetings
and give a 5 minute talk on the research you've conducted to support your claims. Thanks for caring.
Good luck.
D.

the past 2 weeks have been a joke at the school that the kids I nanny for go to. Last week they had monday off then out of the remaining 4 days they had just random stuff. field day, picnic day, field trip to the zoo and all day reading party etc
this week
no school monday
no homework all week. today is crazy clothes day, region party / sundae party
tomorrow regular day
friday they go for 1 hour what is the freaking point of going for one hour? just don't get it

Their game = their rules and quirks.

Homeschooling = my rules and quirks.

:)

PS: You might be surprised at all the social opportunities for homeschoolers. Drop in on a homeschool support meeting sometime and just have a look around. In our community we have more things to do than we have time to them.

I was the same way with math facts. What is the point of learning advanced concepts (algebra and geometry) in lower school when you are still struggling with times tables?

Maybe you should homeschool.

All schools do this. They are required to be in session XX days per year. They get their required curriculum covered and other than sitting in class twiddling their thumbs they do fun stuff. It's the end of the year. Let it go.

I think this is how it is everywhere. But if you keep her home too many days in a row even at the end of the school year you could get in trouble for truancy at least that's how it is here. The elementry schools here do that type of stuff as well cause they have finished their cariculum for the year. My son's has only been the last week of school. But they have to be in school so many days because of federal regulations. But the middle schools and high schools will have exams the last two days of school. So they can't let the elementary schools out and have the middle schools and high schools still going. This is their time to spend time with their friends before summer. They may not see them again till next year and some will move off and they will never see them again at all. Don't stress too much about it. If she's in 3rd grade unless you home school you only have a few more years of this.

i'm going to start homeschooling next year. because of that i have joined 2 or 3 online groups for homeschoolers. there are somany activities and even co-ops where you get together with other parents and teach certain classes together that she would have plentyof oportunities to be social. to me school doesnt give proper time to even be social without worrying about the kids getting in trouble for being social.

another idea is to join a church with many childrens activities and posibly a girl scout troup or a sport (homeschoolers have their own so that they can have practices during the day) or hobby. look at your local rec centers list of things to do that season and sign her up for a couple. believe me with little to no cost per month she could be having plenty of interaction. and without being in school all day you two can find more fun things to spend your free time doing while actually learning doing them like going on nature walks, visiting your local museums and such.

i do understand your whole wasted time in school though. my 6th grader just brought her books out of her room to take back to school because they won't be needing them these last two weeks.

It is crazy and as they get older it gets to be a bigger issue. Here in NY we don't finish school until June 22 and honestly they haven't covered any new ground in weeks. My 10th grade daughter has 7 classroom days after today - although in most classes they are reviewing and preparing for the state regents exams (NY is the only state to have "regents diplomas" as a different thing than an ordinary NY diploma - don't get me started). The last two weeks she goes into school only 3 times to take 4 regents exams (math, social studies, english & science). In middle school they go a few more days but it's very similar. Craziness.

I agree with the posters that the government is wasting time and MONEY by doing nothing for the last week or TWO WEEKS of legislated school time.

The problem is the government has dictated that the school year will be 180 days more or less. So once the final tests are in and graded, our hard working teachers don't want to have to grade any more papers after the report cards have been turned in or worry about the grades for those papers being added to a students scores.

If you want to do something about that, run for school board. Write your legislatures and school board members. Go to the meetings of the school board and voice your opinion. Get other like minded parents or grandparents together and go together and voice the same opinion. There is nothing like 50 people showing up for a meeting where they usually have 3 or 4 people attend and then 40 or more of the crowd say the same thing. That will get their attention ! ! !

I was elected to the Board of Directors of our local water district. I ran for office because the board passed a 30% increase in water rates and treated those of at the rate meeting like they didn't care about us "ignorant" water users. They were arrogant and condesending. They really made me mad so I ran for the board, and won.

Now the board is quaking in their boots about their former free spending habits and are worried about being re-elected. Its a power game. I'm the only elected official that is out to save the rate payers (taxpayers) money and don't care about being re-elected. Their whole outlook is about getting re-elected.

If you want to accomplish something, make them think their re-election is NOT assured if they don't do something.

Good luck to you and yours.

My kids still learned stuff and had assignments/homework.
Even on the last day of school, although they had just fun activities, my daughter (who just finished 4th grade), they had a science test. And in the last 2 weeks of school, they had 2 research projects and they had to do a presentation with each one.

My son, who finished Kindergarten, still learned stuff and they had their usual routine everyday too. Although they also had class parties and end of school activities.

My kids go to public school.

Your child is in 3rd grade: so I would HIGHLY suggest, that your daughter practice the multiplication table, math facts, and doing addition and subtraction with 3 number digits, and also fractions. As in, fraction equations. Also practice word problems.

In 4th grade, my daughter learned algebra. And it was expected that they KNEW their multiplication table, already upon entering 4th grade. In 4th grade, the academic expectations takes a leap. So beware.
Have her practice it over the summer.
OR... use this: www.khanacademy.org
It is FREE. And it is for any kid at any age. And for adults. This site is great for math. And even Bill Gates is a fan of it. My kids use this site to practice math.

For sure! My kindergartener hasn't come home with homework for a few weeks now and has brought nothing but coloring pages home. I bought a workbook at the beginning of May, that reviews kindergarten skills and we've been working on that all month, and I've been reading through "What Your Kindergartner Needs To Know" to him as well. I am planning on sending the workbook to the schoolboard, along with a list of new skills I taught him like fractions, to show them how much you can actually accomplish in a month.

I let my 5th grader stay home today b/c it's just a 1/2 day of signing year books which we didn't purchase this year. Tomorrow is her last day and she gets out early. They've been doing nothing this week. Grrrr....