In the next few minutes I will show you the problems that educators and children, in the public school system, face because of the traditional, but out-dated calendar. I will then introduce you to some of the aspects of year-round school and show you how it is a better alternative than the current nine month calendar.
There are, as I see it, 4 key issues that illustrate why the nine-month calendar is a problem. First, it is a 100-year-old system that was implemented to accommodate an agrarian society. The 9-month calendar is a throwback to our old agricultural economy. Even when my daddy was a boy (some 40 odd years ago) and he had to work cotton this system was great, but today that lifestyle is few and far between.
Next, we have new
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There are several variations, but the majority still has students attending for 180 days, and teachers 190. All YRS does is provide continuous amounts of learning time with more rejuvenating breaks throughout the year. This system is finding much success, which we can see from statistics found on the NAYRE website. They show that in the US alone, in 2002-2003, close to 32 hundred schools were going YR. They were serving around 2,300,000 students. And that was just for public schools. There were also 110 charters and 91 private schools that were operating YR. It probably does not seem like much, but since 1986-87 there has been a 544% growth in public forums alone.
With this in mind, I will now give you the major benefits and issues dealing with YRS.
There are many reasons to go to YRS, but due to time I will only discuss what I believe are the three most important areas. The first is dealing with the fact that schools provide a safe haven for many children. With more short breaks schools are able to implement intercessions that allow all of the children to be involved in fun, supervised learning experiences. These can be used for remediation and enrichment. This keeps kids learning, off of the streets, and out of trouble. The National Education Commission on Time and Learning has provided a profound statement when reviewing YRE. They believe that “America’s students will have their best chance @ success when they are no longer serving time, but time is serving