So! It's Labor Day.

[conuly]

Public schools open tomorrow, and Catholic schools open on Thursday.

[Poll #1251915]

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

School is too broad a term. The answers vary depending on which school you are talking about. Especially high school versus college. But I think the sart time might have been different from elementary to middle to high school. I couldn't even put my high school start time because it depended on whether I had a first period class or not, so it varied from semester to semester by about 45 minutes (you always had to come in for home room which was after first period). Same for end time, by the way, it varied based on whether I had a ninth period class or not. And in Middle School all classes except the advanced science class for those doing high school science in middle school ended at 8th period, but 9th period existed so you could have a time to talk to teachers, get extra help, use the library, etc. Some teachers held special study sessions before tests during ninth period. That was great because they had school buses that left at the end of both 8th and 9th period so you could choose to get extra help or use the computers or the library without having a problem getting home. I wish all schools did that. Plus a guaranteed time you could talk to your teachers about any issues was awesome, and something I didn't have in high school.

[rachelkachel]

Yeah, start and end times got earlier the older I got. Elementary was 9-3:45ish, junior high was I think 8:30-3 or something, and high school was 7:30-2:10.

[conuly]

Of course, we now know that younger children benefit from being up earlier, while older kids are better off sleeping later. What's more, older kids can get themselves to school - younger kids are best served leaving when their parents do in the morning.

That schedule is so backwards.

[conuly]

College doesn't count.

And I know it's a really broad term. It was that or have the poll be four or five times as long as it already is.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Okay, I gave the best answers I could. If I have kids, I'm not set on them having any particular type of education, it will depend on what is available and what seems best for the kids themselves. Kids vary. Local options vary. How the kids interact with those options vary. So, I can't really predict in advance what will seem best for them.

[conuly]

That's because you think too much. Such leoras are dangerous, you know :P

At least, you're dangerous to my polls. Do what I did - close your eyes and point.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I know.. how dare I put a desire to analyze the details of the specific situation to decide what is best for my children before the simplicity of the devotion to a dogmatic view that there is a clear best path in all cases that everyone should follow?

I'm a terrible person.

[conuly]

Yes. Yes, you are. You should always take the dogmatic path. Always.

Dogmatism. Dogmatism. Dogmatism.

Now, chant that 100 times. Go on...!

[conuly]

If it's any consolation, your inability to take a poll without posting about it and asking for clarification should make you a great parent.

[hopefulnebula]

I started college on Labor Day each year for the first three years. They didn't close for the Civil War; what's a little holiday to them?

When I was in (private) high school and my sister was in (public) middle school (long story there, but it's a matter of "where will my child thrive" and not parental favoritism), she started school at 7:45. I started at 8:30. Her school was farther out than mine, so what we usually did was have my mom drop me off first. I'd get there around 7:30. So, I got myself a job working at the school's food store (not really a cafeteria). I figured, if I'm going to be there early, I might as well be useful.)

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

For the "other" part of my question, I went to a public school that had a little bit of a selection process, basically a "lottery" which gave parents certain advantages if they already had a kid in the system and/or they worked for the local university upon which the school was located, and there were limited numbers of students allowed in each grade. Back then, the grades were 1 through senior in high school. 1st grade was something like 25 students, and by the time the senior high school grade came around, the number was increased (somewhat gradually) to 65. My younger sister and I both ended up being 12-year students there. The year after she graduated, they started a year-round schedule, which I wish I had gotten a chance to try. I personally think it's a better system now that there's not as much of a summer planting/harvest schedule to worry about everywhere having young helpers on the farm. :-p

As for my vote on uniforms, I think they're terrible - all the uniforms I've seen are horrid, even in the Army (though I'm partial to the physical training outfits, but carrying on...). I'm glad I never had to wear one. On the other hand, it would cut down on all the "fashion fights" and yet another thing to pick on peers for.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

You all start late! The public schools around here all started last week (first day of school in the local district was Tuesday) and the private school I'm teaching at started last Thursday.

I had trouble with the times, because they really seem to vary here. When I was in high school, our day was 7am to 2.15pm, but now, more of the schools seem to run on an 8-3/3.30 schoolday. I think my high school just enjoyed torturing us.

If I have kids, I haven't decided where I'll send them. Catholic school is a definite possibility, because I like the religious dimension, and I haven't yet seen the CCD program that isn't utter crap. But...I hated my Catholic school. I think it would depend on where I was living.

[rachelkachel]

Well, I lived close enough to my elementary to walk, and we had a nanny so my parents didn't have to stick around and be late for work - but in general, yes, it's messed up.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

St. Louis Public Schools begin the fall term before Labor Day (this year it was August 18th, the earliest I can remember in many years) and now finish the spring term in early to mid-June. A special, partial summer term is now held from mid-June through the end of July as more and more schools become air conditioned thanks to a special bond issue passed to pay just for that some years ago.

There is a staggered schedule in three tiers. My boys, because they are bussed to magnet schools, are in the first tier, with school from 7:20 a.m. to 2:19 p.m.

Uniforms here are an individual school option: one son has to wear a uniform, the other does not.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

P. S.: Even if it were made available to me as a no-cost option I would not send my sons to Catholic school: I attended a Catholic elementary school from Kindergarten through 4th Grade, and was (violently and psychologically but at least not sexually) abused.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Elementary/highschool started a MONTH ago here. The kids attend a daycare as part ofa science-oriented charter school, where they will also start grade school and continue as long as we like the program and the kids do well. If not,we'l reevalute.

I spent until age 10 at a private school for girls in england. we wore uniforms, down to the correct color hair ribbons. i wish my kids would have to wear uniforms, but we can't afford private school, unless iget a big raise!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Me in my summer uniform


My sister and I in our winter uniforms


don't forget the hats! :P

[conuly]

You're English originally?

There's a push in NYC for the public schools to have uniforms. Of course, both the schools *and* the students are ultimately opt-in, so....

Like, when I was in elementary school there were already uniforms, but as I recall I only ever saw one kid wearing one.

[conuly]

How can you say we all start late? If we're the majority, isn't it more that you all started early?

[conuly]

ON Labor Day? Wouldn't it make as much sense to start a day early and take the second day off or somesuch?

[conuly]

It's not so much that you couldn't get yourself to school as that I don't think a six year old should be left in the house to leave on their own if their parents are best leaving for work two hours earlier than their kid should head to school.

[hopefulnebula]

ON Labor Day. Full day of classes and everything. They still have classes on the day now, but school starts and gets out earlier.

What Centre College has against the concept of the three-day weekend, I'll never know.

[conuly]

Holidays are for commies and terrorists. REAL AMERICANS never sleep, never give up, never surrend... I feel I'm quoting something, but I'm just not sure what.

[hopefulnebula]

Oh yeah. We also have school on MLK Day. There's always a been big fuss about that, though I suspect for a good deal of the students they just wanted the time off to get drunk. Januaries (Januarys? Januari?) are weird at Centre. And there'd be classes on Memorial Day as well except Centre gets out in mid-May.

We also have classes on the other federal holidays, except Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years, and everything in the summer.

(I'd meant to add this to an edit to the comment, but you went and replied.)

("Never give up, never surrender"=GalaxyQuest [Holy shit, that came out in 1999???], but I'm sure it's been used somewhere before.)

[conuly]

HOLY SHIT IT DID?

(I actually knew that, I just didn't want to admit I knew that. I shall not ever admit to knowing of that movie.)