School's Out Early...Again

Is it just me? It seems to me kids spend less time in school nowadays than they did back when I was in school. Of course, I only know what I read in the papers and hear from other people. Maybe it just seems different now as an outsider?

Back when I went to school, I only remember maybe one or two days, outside of holidays and summer break, where you got to stay home, one of them being Parent- Teacher Conference Day. There might have been one other event, which escapes me now.

I suppose I could be right, though, after reading in the Times- Standard about "staff collaboration" day, which will have many schools in Eureka sending kids home early once a week. I can't help but think other school districts have the same sort of thing and wonder how many other special events schools take time off for now, as opposed to thirty or forty years ago.

This is probably the old required training as evident in the "State law mandates a specific number of “instructional minutes per year,” mentioned in the T- S story. I think most government agencies do it. Whether it's really a good use of anyone's time, I don't know.

I suppose it depends on what that time is used for. I know when I worked at Juvenile Hall we had a certain amount of training we had to go through that was mandated by the State. Some was worthwhile, some wasn't.

It seemed to me, back then, the most important thing people needed in Juvenile Hall was experience, and you didn't get real experience going to training. I'm not sure how much that applies to our government schools. One thing is for certain: Kids aren't being taught anything during Staff Collaboration.

Then again, as you hear it from some people, kids might learn more away from schools as they do in school nowadays.