The World's Common Tater

I have once again made the mistake of engaging in discussions on Facebook about school calendars. I will try to be more coherent than normal by ranting in a numerical, topical order.

1. “You can’t make X change to the school calendar because I can’t/don’t want to find child care” – It is not the school system’s responsibility to worry about your child care issues. It is the school system’s responsibility to educate your children and to adjust the calendar in the way they feel best accomplishes this. It is YOUR responsibility to deal with YOUR child care issues. Be prepared. Have arrangements in place at the beginning of the school year so you know what you will do if there is a 2 hour delay or 2 hour early dismissal. If these are built into the calendar, it is even easier. Talk to your friends and neighbors. I’m sure you can find someone who will help you. Don’t tell the school system it’s not fair that you have to do this.

2. “I’m mad that you are extending the school year due to bad weather even though the calendar clearly stated that is what would happen. I ignored this and planned a vacation for the day after school was supposed to end” – You are not very smart. Read the calendar. Make your plans accordingly. If school will be extended because of winter closings, don’t make plans too close to the last day of school. You are asking for trouble. It’s not the school systems fault that you can’t/won’t read or just don’t care.

3. “If the school year is extended I will just not send my kids the last week. Nothing happens anyway” – Maybe nothing happens in elementary school, but that all changes toward the end of middle school and especially in high school. You should prepare your children now to expect to stay in school until school is actually over. Also, what kind of lesson are you teaching them if you pull them out of school early because you weren’t smart enough to plan your vacation properly?

4. “We should not even consider school start times because they will have to get up early when they are adults” – Adult and teen sleep needs are totally different.  When they are adults, their sleep cycle will change and they will be better able to deal with this. Why don’t you be honest and admit that you don’t want to mess with school schedules because of #1 above? Many people who argue against late arrival for high schoolers are just afraid they will lose their free babysitting.

I’m sure there were more, but this is all I can remember right now. Now I need to stop reading comments.