Those of us
who are not parents and have been out of school for some time are frequently
astonished that scholastic test results put our kids at or near the bottom of
the barrel. Even parents of children now attending school are shocked at
what’s going on, albeit for different reasons.
Speculations are over. I have
recently obtained a copy of a school calendar, published for parents, that
identifies the days children actually attend school and it’s simply
mind-boggling. The following will answer some of your questions about why
Johnny and most of his friends not only can’t read, but also don’t
learn many other practical skills throughout their pitiful scholastic
career:
The school year for this
particular calendar began on the first day of August. This year the 1st fell on
a Friday and we all know you can’t possibly start school on a Friday, so
we waited until Monday the 4th to begin.
According to one California
Unified School District Approved School Calendar there are 180 possible school
days. These are the days not automatically preempted by scheduled vacation
times such as two weeks each for fall, winter and spring recesses, and of
course the forty-seven days of summer vacation. We all agree that no matter
which month you start with, there are 365 days in a year. With simple
subtraction one can easily see that would automatically leave 185 days for
weekends and scheduled vacation time.
Out of the 180 possible days
left for school attendance sixteen are eliminated by the odd holidays, such as
Memorial, President’s, Martin Luther King, Columbus, Thanksgiving and
Veterans Days. Then there is something called School Based Coordinated Program
Days. Two days are actually labeled Extended Spring Recess. That leaves your
kids 164 days of attendance, but wait, that’s not all. There are 22 days
called minimum or shortened days when school ends at 11:50 a.m., these are days
that parent conferences are held.
I found the month of November
particularly fascinating. Out of a possible 17 days your children attended only
one full day of school. The rest were vacation, minimum, or parent conference
days. Nobody has spent enough time with the kids to know much about their
knowledge level or study habits. What on earth could they possibly have to
discuss?
Using elementary math anyone can
figure out that the total number of full school days attended by your kids
according to this calendar was 142. That leaves 223 days free or a total of 39%
of the year in attendance.
It’s just an errant
thought, but how do you plan for childcare and after school programs that
don’t start until after one o’clock when the minimum days pump the
kids into the street just before noon? What happens when the kid gets sick for
a week? Tell me, are your offspring ingenious, creative and resourceful? With
this schedule they need to be all those things, just to find something to do.
Are we surprised that the courts
are clogged? That electronic cash registers are needed to calculate change for
the body behind the counter? That cultural awareness and the ability to hang
six words together to complete a sentence have gone the way of the rotary dial
phone?
According to the philosophy my
parents held school was my job until I graduated, and grades were treated as
the equivalent of a paycheck. If you only worked thirty nine percent of the
time would you still have a job? Could you pay your bills or feed your family
on less than forty percent of your income?
How do we justify the amount of
money spent in taxes on schools? Every time we listen to the news a new program
for kids is being discussed, but no one talks about more time in school. Have
we become so self absorbed that we have no clue as to the waste and devastation
to which we’ve condemned our future?
Take a good look at the next
young person you come into contact with. These are the people who will inherit
the earth. If they can’t read, or perform simple job skills is it their
fault? Learning takes time. With all our expensive, creative programming
maneuvers that’s the one thing we’re not giving them. Shouldn’t
they be in school?
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