Quote:
Originally posted by Hell Puppy@Aug 2 2004, 05:37 PM
Partially a by-product of a semester system instead of the quarter system that was more favored up thru the early 80's.
The idea is to start early enough to have the semester end in time for a long winter break at the holidays. Then start the next semester early enough to have them out by memorial day.
Some systems also have longer class periods to try to squeeze in a year's worth of material in one semester. I know I would've hated it....get a bad teacher or class that is boring and you're stuck with their ass 90+ minutes a day for half a year.
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But this is pretty recent - I know my kid didn't start this early. IIRC, they always started the week before Labor day - "free week" since they wouldn't get anything done, lol! MAYBE the week before then, but the end of JULY?? That's just nuts.
What you're describing sounds like the Cobb block schedule where you would take classes only half the year for an couple of hours a day. For instance you would take Math, English and an elective the first half of the year and completely different courses the 2nd halt. CT's school didn't like it and that's when they decided to become a charter school and not deal with it.
I don't know if they changed it back or not but I can imagine it would be tough to take math the first 4 months, then not take it the rest of school year AND the summer and then try to remember what you needed to progress the next year.
Boy I'm glad I don't have a kid in the school system anymore...........