What's the educational argument for so many holidays?

[TinTinsSexySister]

Just that really.

Are there any educational benefits to frequent school holidays or are they just an historical hangover? Educationally speaking, would we be worse or better off adopting the US system?

I am a teacher. I still have to pay a childminder to pick up/ drop off my kids, cover incompatible holidays, have the kids when I can't take them into school during the holidays etc.

'A short working day? What a load of absolute bollocks!'

Well, exactly. So why not change the school year to reflect the hours that we really do?

The vast majority of us work hundreds of hours over and above directed time. Why wouldn't you want that recognized and balanced out?

Most secondaries? Because you know that, right? Having visited them all? Oh please.

Evil, I don't understand why you're being so unpleasant.

It would be a rare school indeed that continues a unit begun before the Easter holiday after the holiday or after the summer.

I have worked in various capacities in a huge number of secondary schools and I've never yet worked in one that didn't end particular units with the end of each half-term or term if it's a particularly long unit.

I've also worked with various exam boards and this is the way they suggest SoWs or course structures.

But the point is that courses should be structured first and foremost around what works best for the pupils. Surely we can agreed on that?

Rather than harvests or pagan festivals.

Calm down, that's why I said in theory, feenie.

That IS how I structure my teaching. My current Yr 11 spec requires the completion of 7 units over 2 years. Do you imagine that I did one unit per half term and then from October of yr11 did nothing?

I'm being unpleasant because you're doggedly refusing to accept any flaws in your suggested system.

Another unanswered question- would a child have to miss an entire module (ie be out of school for 6 weeks) or is it, in fact, a drop-in system whereby parents could take their kids at any time for holidays?

You do realise that there are some who wouldn't go on holiday anyway? And others whose parents would still keep them off to wait in for the Sky man/ mind the baby? This wouldn't solve anything except perhaps allowing middle-class parents cheaper foreign holidays.

RIght, off to fit in some more unpaid hours!

Evil, obviously I'm not a policy maker so I'm not going to sit down and plan out the entire system for my ideal world.

My ideas is to have a rota system such that each child has to cover so many compulsory units and so many options each year. Obviously they could do several simultaneously as with the current system. Within this structure any child could opt out of school altogether for a holiday 'unit' or where it wasn't possible for parents to take the child out for 6 weeks they could do a combination of leisure activiites/extra curricular/sport/catch up which could be optoutable for shorter periods. If you had a rota with the school being open all year children would never miss out and teachers would have more flexiliby.

If teachers wanted to operate under the current model -burn out and then 6 weeks off maybe thtt would still be possible but if they wanted to work more weeks but at a slower pace that would also be possible such that they are all teaching the same number of hours and the kids are studying the samenumber of compulsory hours over the year.

It's genius.

There would never be a valid reason for parents to take kids out of compulsory subjects for a holiday since there would be a holiday option each half-term or module or whatever it would be called. No, it's not going to create world peace or stop truanting but it would be a hell of a lot better than what we've got now. And no need for childcare so massive boost to working parents and the economy.

It's genius

It's unworkable, expensive, and, at your own admission, ill-thought out.

As opposed to the system now which is unworkable, expensive, ill thought-out (for the modern economy), wasteful but hey teachers get 6 weeks holiday so they don't want change. Oh and bugger the poor tax paying working parent who funds that holiday whilst having to sort out childcare and is concerned that their kid is not benefiting academically from the current strucutre.

None of which is the fault of teachers, so wind your neck in.

And at least my system has the needs of the child at its heart together with their parents and then society and the economy as a whole.

As opposed to a system organised around the bloody harvest and pagan festivals, oh, and teachers' sense that they are entitled to a 6 week break with their own kids at the taxpayer's expense.

I never said it was the fault of teachers.

Why the need to blame, find fault and criticise? It's a bad habit.

Why not debate how change might be a positive thing for everyone?

I'm thinking specifically of Easter which is the really annoying one for schools planning because it changes.

Why the need to blame, find fault and criticise? It's a bad habit.

I cannot be arsed to search, copy and paste, but you have done LOADS of that on this thread.

You will be last man standing, fivecandles - but it won't be because your argument is sound, it'll be because you have bored everyone else to death.

I have not blamed, found fault or criticised.

Neither have I launched unpleasant personal attacks.

criticising is important! it is definitely as important as thinking of the positives.

i have not seen any posts by teachers railing against your ideas because they want holidays, or don't care about children

arguments against your method have been made from pedagogical, economic and logistical perspectives. it's actually kind of offensive, thus insistance that the only reason a teacher might be wary of your changes is because they are selfish and don't give a shit about kids

Yeah you have, you've been quite unpleasant to many teachers.

'i have not seen any posts by teachers railing against your ideas because they want holidays, or don't care about children'

Really? You haven't been looking very carefully then.

And every single 'pedagogical, economic and logistical perspective' I have countered.

It keeps coming back to the fact that there is no good reason to keep the system as it is (which was to suit a rural economy and religious festivals) and plenty of good reasons to change it.