Real life stories
by Bryce Inman | Link to this postHere's a "real life" example of how a year-round calendar would have a negative impact on a students who use the summer months for life-building activities. This letter has been sent to Becky Sharber and Pat Anderson—the Hodgson's School Board representative from the 8th district. This letter is reprinted with their premission.
(SPECIAL NOTE: Although the year-round calendar was rejected for the 2006-2007 school year, at least one advocate on the School Board has already set in motion a plan that would introduce a year-round calendar in Williamson County by forcing 1-3 high schools in the southern part of our county—and the middle and elementary schools that feed into those high schools—onto this calendar as soon as the 2007-2008 school year.)
My wife and I have been closely following the debate over the calendar. We are in the eighth district.
1) We are adamantly OPPOSED to the "Balanced Calendar".
2) Our preference is to start school as late as possible in August, preferably August 21, but not before August 14. We could list 10's of cogent reasons why starting later is better for families and the community.
3) We were planning on sending our 14-year-old son to 9th grade at either Franklin HS or Brentwood HS this coming fall. If the balanced calendar is passed with school starting July 24th, we will NOT send him to public school. We know others that will opt for the private school option if the calendar starts early.
4) My wife and I have been swimming coaches for over 30 years and we are currently coaching some of the best swimmers in Williamson County. I was a USA Olympic Swim Coach in 1984. These dedicated young swimmers train 6 days per week, 48-49 weeks per year and the major meets for these swimmers are generally July 26 to middle of August. Starting school early would be a huge disadvantage for these future college scholarship athletes because they will be forced to get un-excused absences to attend Regional, Sectional, Zone, and/or National Championships.
5) We feel strongly that the proposal of the balanced calendar has been irresponsibly thrust on the citizens with virtually no education about the proposal and no input from the citizens or the businesses.
Sincerely,
Charlie and Amy Hodgson
1 Comments:
The Tennessean is really getting the word out to promote a balanced calendar for Metro schools. Once again off-season Florida vacations are sited as very attractive. But today's article also contains some interesting information highlighting the advantage that a balanced calendar offers school systems with large numbers of students who speak English as a second language. The following quote by Ms. Del Rio of the Glencliff cluster is particularly telling: "With the longer period of time in the summer, because the parents speak another language, (students) lose a little bit of what they learned in school," she said. "Breaking it up a little bit different, we feel, will help them."
This claim suggests that too much uninterrupted time spent with parents is a detriment to students...what an outrageous statement.
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