Understanding the value of a summer break for teachers, students
The article in the Democrat on the legislative bills for year-round school programs did not include any input from professional school educators. So here we have a bunch of politicians trying to run the schools.
Yes, the pandemic created a problem for the students not being able to physically attend school. The at-home online classes I feel sure were a big help; but not being in the classroom was not as full of an experience as with sharing the learning experience with other students and teachers.
The bill sponsor, Rep. Patricia Williams, D-Pompano Beach, states the benefits of the program and supports it with generalities. She says it will benefit every child that participates. Will an individual child have anything to say about participating? If a school district elects toparticipate or not, it is not the parents’ choice as to participate or not. Their children go to public school in the district of their residence.
How could that choice be given to an individual student? How about those students who are either home schooled or were diligent in their participation of online courses? Where are the facts and figures for the increase of crime? Rep. Williams’s bio shows no experience as a schoolteacher or as an educational administrator.
I don’t think the legislators are taking into consideration what the students would be missing in the “life experience” they have during the summer break. There are a lot of things going on for students that are very important in their “growing-up” time during the summer break. It is a time families enjoy being together and doing things together.
First, the students and teachers all look forward to the end of the school year. The teachers need a break for their own personal reasons as well as necessary planning for the coming year. It is a good time for school administration changes. Some teachers use the time to further their own education. It is also the time for school renovations and new construction when the schools are not crowded with students.
If you were to ask some students what they do during the summer break, there would be a long list of diverse activities. I think the politicians should ask each other what they did during their summer break, they likely would be the same as the students.
In my younger years, summer was a time I could vacation with my granddad and grandmother and uncles and aunts and cousins. Vacationing with my family.
Later I worked at a grocery store, did yard work and then would work for my father, who was a civil engineer every summer. The summer work was also a learning experience. Learning things that enhanced my total life experience.
Donald Pickett, Realtor, GRI, Tallahassee Real Estate N Data Services, Coldwell Banker Hartung.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Understanding the value of a summer break for teachers, students
