A local school here in central Florida is considering dropping the school week to four days due to financial issues. Schools in Marion County have already made the change. They want to drop a day of EDUCATION in order to save extra curricular activities.
"The Pasco County School Board is looking at a four-day school week as a way to save money and keep extracurricular activities." -- baynews9
Now, does that make ANY sense? I don't know about you, but my thinking is while extra curricular activities ARE important for socialization and health, among many other benefits, I still think education should come first. After all, you can do extra curricular activities at local YMCA's, boys and girls clubs, and other opportunities like that.
I will be honest, my opinion may not be as valid as others because I am not a parent yet, but it seems to me the school system has just went downhill since I graduated 10 years ago (not that it was wonderful then). But seriously? Since when did sports, etc, become more important than education itself?!
I am not involved in education in no way, but just from what I've seen, it seems students already have way more "off" days than I did when I was in school. Almost every month there is either an off day for an actual holiday OR a teacher work day. And now, they want to drop a day off of every single week?!
This just blows my mind.
In my mind, I see an extra day off as multiple problems:
1. extra day care or babysitter costs for parents of younger school age children
2. extra day off for older age school children to be getting into stuff they shouldn't be.
Let's face it. Children are growing up at a much more rapid rate than when I was growing up. I've spoken to children as young as 5, 6, 7 years old that have used a sexual term. WHAT?! I definitely did not know that kind of stuff when I was in elementary school. An extra day away from school gives teenagers even more of an opportunity for sex, drugs, parties, etc. Please don't take this the wrong way. I am NOT saying that I believe all teenagers would use the extra day to get into stuff they shouldn't. Thankfully, that is NOT the case. What I am saying is, it's those that are already involved in that type of stuff that would take advantage of it. Add an extra day to the weekend. PARTY!
I don't know. Since I am not a parent I've never given it deep thought, however, taking the school week to Monday through Thursday just does not seem like a smart idea to me personally. BUT, I don't think I'd object to making the work week Monday through Thursday. Does that make me a hypocrite? :)
On a serious note, what are YOUR thoughts? I'd love to hear opinions on this.
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