School Calendar Debate

To me the school calendar debate is somewhat overblown. Many have established an arbitrary number of 180 days as the gold standard. The weather and any other issues be darned, if students do not have the opportunity to endure 180 days of school, they have been somehow undeserved.

While debate has raged over the quantity of days spent in school, little discussion centers around the quality. Over consolidation and overcrowded classrooms affect the educational experience far more adversely than whether or not a school system has operated 180 days.

Let's be honest. Many days on the school calendar see both teachers and students less than motivated by the learning experience. Thirteen years of personal attendance, four years as a substitute, and sixteen combined years spent by my children in school tells me that any days spent during Thanksgiving week, any days during a week shortened by Christmas, and every day in June is nearly pointless. These are opportunities to show The Princess Bride or the movie about the Red Rider BB gun shooting a kid's eye out again.

It's not that I am complaining about these diversions for school kids, but we are fooling ourselves if we think that each one of those 180 days will be chock full of instructional time. And should they be? College students pack the same amount of learning into many fewer days.

It's time to debate the sizes of schools and classrooms, not the number of days. Shrink the size of schools and classes overall and you will achieve better results in 150 days of class time than you are now.