Schools Considering Four-Day Weeks | Hacker News Reader

Schools Considering Four-Day Weeks

citytowninfo.com

13 pointsbcathome19 comments

"We're all trying different things now to see what will help us save a little money," she explained.

Lazy thinking masquerading as innovation.

A four day school week (160 vs. 180) affecting all faculty and students to save $200K? Let me give you a better idea: fire three overpriced administrators who agree to this s##t for brains idea and save $75K each.

You should probably bump that 75K to 100K and throw in s $30K side order of benefits and about a $1-$1.5M defined-benefit pension .

At least that's the going rate for most "administrators" in my neck of the woods (Milwaukee).

If society centers on a typical 5-day work week and then centers on a typical 4-day school week, then society is very very stupid.

But don't worry, all those young tween and teen boys who are out of school and unsupervised will be sure to let society know just how stupid.

You know the other day, i was remembering my time in Atlanta and all of the bright shining stars they're cranking out, and i was thinking to myself...what could we really do to drive a nail into the coffin of our youths futures'? And then suddenly this article shows up, must be fate!

On a serious note, this is symptomatic of a larger national trend, we're paying more attention to everything OTHER than our children, and we wonder why we don't dominate markets that we did 20 years ago. Something drastic needs to be done, but less time with teachers, and more time un-supervised is probably not the extra "edge" our students need right now.

we're paying more attention to everything OTHER than our children

Not so here. I'm taking special care to make sure that all my four children are well educated. I do that in two ways:

1) I homeschool them, so that they have flexible curricula well matched to their needs with the highest quality available materials,

and

2) I actively participate in two nonprofit organizations dedicated to improvement of education in my state. In one, I coordinate with other parents to promote better education for gifted learners inside or outside classroom schools, and in the other I coordinate a math education program helping young people advance in their math understanding at elementary age

http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf

http://archive.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall99...

http://archive.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues...

Note the articles I have just linked to. You can't be sure that if most American children spent more time in elementary school classrooms that they would grow up with more knowledge of mathematics. The same is true of reading, but that's another set of links.

你好, Having gone to public and private school, i can give a fair recommendation that while I learned more academically in private school, I learned more about dealing with difficult people and real world situations (accidentally) in public school. Home schooling can be part of the answer I just hope you are allowing your children to grow. More schooling isn't an absolute, just look at japan and ask why they don't produce (as many) innovators.

I very much applaud your efforts to improve education of your state, i hope you keep up the good work. After looking at your bio, i see that you're very involved in the education system. I'm curious what brings you to HN other than good news and good commentators ^_^ . Do you also have plans to take over the world with a start-up like the rest of us?

"Home schooling can be part of the answer I just hope you are allowing your children to grow."

Do you honestly worry that he isn't allowing his child to "grow" by homeschooling?

Public school is hardly the sole source for the teaching of "socialization" skills for children.

Exchanging 50% graduation rates for lessons on "dealing with difficult people" is hardly a bargain.

If you're the type of person to home school, then your children aren't the demographic that doesn't graduate. On the other hand i've seen divisions in a YMCA league between the students who go to school together and the students who don't. Home schooling is very empowering, and beneficial. I support it and you.

Not all parents consider "socialization" necessary, but you are obviously not all parents. Kudos.

Hawaii is already doing this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/21/hawaii-schools-f...

It's been very problematic for parents who have to find childcare on Fridays -- it basically just shifts that cost back on to the taxpayer.

That's how I was thinking as well.

So, would it make more sense (fiscally, not politically) to just impose or increase a tax to fund the 5th day--worked out to pretty much the same cost as people would have to pay for local childcare? Same fiscal burden, but much less social disruption.

The article sounds like the officials already realize that this is a horrible idea, though the tax payers won't do anything to prevent it. Even if it is the same overall price, its hidden in the fine print, and most people won't dig deep enough to find it.

Now if only the general masses were smarter they could figure this out for themselves. But how will we make the masses smarter if we are taking cuts to our education system...

"the tax payers won't do anything to prevent it"

So to you, that's the problem?

A math example:

Milwaukee Area school budget (2008) - $1.2B Total Enrolled Students: 82,739 Cost per student: $14,503

I can purchase on the open market private schooling in the Milwaukee area for around $6K for K-8 and $9K for high school.

For the record, my wife homeschools for no cost to the taxpayers but we still pay the taxes.

It also disproportionately shifts that cost onto single parent families and families where both parents work. Generally those tend to be poorer families.

On the high school level, perhaps jr high as well, if you could replace the 5th day at school with a day in a workplace - some kind of internship - then I think you would end up with a better system. Perhaps vastly better.

A large part of the value that first and secondary schools provide is supervision. Academic subjects can be learned by self-study with the aid of learning materials and the occasional tutor. But supervision still requires a real person and physical building. As surveillance technology matures, even supervision will be doable without these. At this point, it will be much harder to justify traditional schools.

While education experts have expressed concern about the long-term effects of reduced learning hours, schools are saying that the step is necessary to avoid further teacher layoffs.

Wait, you're telling me that if you have a four-day school week, it's so that we can keep more teachers on board?

My school district switches to 4 ten-hour days over the summers; we save a ton of money on utilities just letting the buildings stay uncooled for three days instead of two.

Nobody has suggested doing that when classes are in session, though. Probably because most of my administration is relatively sane.

If the hours are made up in the other four days, it makes sense to me.

Great, just great. ...I'll make sure my kids are at 5-day week school to give them an advantage over the poor kids harmed by this idiocy.

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