A Labor Day issue: Delay school starts?
9/04/2005
It is bad enough that the Grinch stole Christmas. The nasty green gremlin has also been stealing summer vacation, pushing it deeper back into August from Labor Day. Well, enough is enough. It's time to draw a line in the sand and tell locally controlled school districts: You shall wait to start classes until after Labor Day weekend. (Read More)
Early start limits summer learning
8/21/2005
Early August school start dates create headaches, heartaches and hardships for teachers, families and students. I strongly support a traditional school calendar with a start date of Sept. 1 and an end date of May 31. (Read More)
There's no proof that starting school early improves education
7/31/05
Maybe it's just me and my circle of friends.
Perhaps we're just plain ol' fuddy-duddies, stuck in the past, rigid to change. But change has come, and it has left us to wonder how in the world we got to this: That our kids return to school in a week. That Mom and Dad are already tax-free shopping for clothes and supplies, and that soon our kids will be prepping for high-stake tests.
We've lost practically all of August. The traditional months of summer have been truncated. We get less true summer time to spend with Big Momma, see movies, have sleepovers, play basketball, read, and yes — succumb, even, to boredom. Our dog days of summer are spent in class, not poolside. (Read More)
Read responses to this article at "Return to traditional calendar, teachers" Atlanta Journal-Constitution - August 3
Adjust school calendars to bring real summer vacation back
6/30/05
Summer has been backed up into spring, and the resultant collision has left me shell-shocked. School has been out for more than a month, but my calendar says summer didn't officially begin until last week. My family was run ragged as we completed our spring activities, while at the same time starting our summer ones. In one recent week, we wrapped up Little League, a play and a piano recital. At the same time, we attended a Sandy Creek Nature Center mini-camp, morning and evening swim practice and two swim meets - one of the meets rescheduled from the week before when someone had the sense to decide it was just too cold to hold a swim meet. (Read More)
Late Notification Not Good Enough
9/9/04
School deadline has issue
11/11/03
Research shows that early school start dates don’t help academic performance.
Actually, the states with the highest average scores on the American College Test, one of the nation’s most widely used college entrance exams, began academic instruction in late August or early September.
One of the top Alabama school districts, Mountain Brook City Schools, has a steep tradition of beginning school in late August. (Read More)
