4 Day School Week? GFY parents, what do yout think?
 

Just saw this on the news, that a few schools around Philly are thinking about testing out a 4 day school week which will save the district some $1.5mm a month in costs

Article on Time.com

I can only imagine this will cause issues with parents as most probably work during the day and don't have a way to get their kids on that 5th day. Likewise, what about single parents with younger kids in school, I can see this causing problems.

When I lived in Missouri when I was younger we went on this year around schedule, 9 weeks on 3 weeks off. Luckily my mom was a stay at home mom, but a few kids I knew had to go to some type of day care while they were on vacation.

I'm sure that "thinking" is as far as they will get. Most parents depend on school as daycare.

Did you guys ever wonder why teachers need to teach the same thing over and over each year? It appears to make most sense to just tape the lectures once, and then just play them to students each year?

They could just take the best teachers in the world, have them tape amazing lectures full of visual aids, etc, on different topics. Students would watch them, then few times per week they would go to school to discuss the topics learned, ask questions, engage in group activities, etc

Seems like this approach would save ton of $$ and could even result in better education...

They should fire the dead weight that simply rides tenure from teaching since the 1960's, then fire some useless administrators. Then maybe they would have some bucks.

The whole public school system is so screwy. Do they even teach kids anymore or is it all zero-tolerance and metal detectors?

Thats a really good idea.

Do you know many kids? Most have the attention span of a goldfish.

Yep. Just well might. So it will never happen.

Tooo many people not getting paid.

No need for Janitors
No need for massive electric bills, water bills, book bills, computer bills
Less then 1/3rd the staff.

That would really hurt the economy.

There are certainly some "bugs" to work out... but I think there is something to that idea... could for example be tried on only the most motivated students at first... and given the costs would be fraction of what they are now, more resources could be used for extra curricular activities or to help more challenged students...

and it's not like the idea is a complete pipe dream, quite a few universities are actually doing that now a days, not some online bs schools either, but normal world renowned universities...

4 days will bite them in the ass. it should be a crime to cut education shows how much the government cares about its citizens. education is the gateway to good things.

I think a fundamental difference there though is people in university want to be there, whereas most kids in high school don't give a fuck.

You are right, that is one difference... but I'm not convinced that is the main reason, I think more important difference is that universities are more open minded to change and face less political opposition...

There is no reson why we couldn't get the ball rolling by for example starting to teach advanced college prep classes in high school using this "new" method... I would guess just about everone taking a calculus class in high school is there to learn, wants to succeed in life and actually wants to be there...

Studies have shown that kids (not college / adult students) learn very little from a teacher that is on 2d screen, and not in person. For some reason their brain blocks it out and they learn almost nothing. How TV is entertaining, but makes kids stupid.

Obama: "We need to invest in education, and become a highly innovative society again, because those who out-educate us today, will out-compete us tomorrow."

Philly School District: "We're broke. You're kids are getting 20% less education now. I hope they're good at flipping burgers, and using a shovel!"

i've NEVER been able to pay attention to lectures.