School district #35 in Langley, BC recently through a curve ball to parents in the district, asking us to vote within the next few weeks about possibly implementing a year round school year. They’ve offered one of three options, including keeping the current calendar, adding an extra week onto the school year at the end of August to balance out Spring and Christmas break, and a third option of sending our children to school for the entire month of July in order to facilitate year round school.
For those of us in or near Vancouver and/or live in Langley, you can follow this discussion on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #sd35calendar or joining in on the various news outlets who are hosting live chats and commentary.
My thoughts are pretty opinionated about this. For one, I use the summer to travel with my kids. We don’t always go very far, but taking them hiking in good weather, spending days at the beach, and not having the stress of homework and having to get up early for school is, in my opinion, good for them. After they have grown up, when in their lives will they be able to do the same thing?
Two, let’s face it, our weather here is horrendous most of the time. I’m not letting some school board take away a minute of sunshine and warmth from my kids.
Let kids be kids for as long as possible, and trust in the parents to continue to facilitate education after the doors close on the school. I don’t think my children will remember what they did on any given school day, but they’ll definitely remember when I took them to the Mining Museum or we played in tide pools while the sun was shining.
Weigh in on Twitter or check out Langley school district for more info.
I am for year round schooling. If we could send the kids to school earlier in the summer (lets say near the end of august) and get a week in the fall, couple weeks at Christmas and a week during the spring that would be great. My kids are in high school and they get bored when it comes to August. Also a break in October would be great for traveling.