Posts by Paul Davis2

Susan James said:There's a huge gap between needing support and actually getting it, and honestly, I think that gap is just way too wide...

I'm not opening any files or documents.
It feels incredibly hypocritical to complain about staffing shortages while simultaneously forcing employees and kids into these chaotic, unplanned schedules that wreck everyone's work-life balance. It makes life impossible for parents during the week—unless you're one of those moms who gets to sit back with a coffee or someone who prefers working from home. Meanwhile, parents are left scrambling to figure out childcare from late June through early September, or dealing with the chaos when people take their two or three weeks of vacation. That’s the reality we're seeing with the current administration.
Why isn't this being handled by sending resources over from Washington, D.C.? We're supposedly short on hours, right?
Why wasn't that the first step they took?
And look at how they handled introducing school lunches. It’s been almost three months now—does every single kid actually have access to lunch at school? People in town are saying it's free, but is it really happening everywhere?

But moving back to the kids who need specialized support:
If school runs from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM (or even 5:00 PM), when on earth are these kids supposed to see a speech therapist or a psychologist? Are these specialists expected to work exclusively in the afternoons? On weekends? At night?

So, basically, a government that signs onto human rights charters is locking children and teachers in schools, intentionally cutting off their growth, development, and access to necessary treatment. Someone here has bad intentions—and if it's not the Masons, then you can fill in the blank.

Susan James said:What does "lagging behind in instructional hours" actually mean?
Yeah, from what I gather about how things work in Washington, D.C., their summer break runs from mid-July through late August, whereas ours stretches from late June all the way to early September. Honestly, it feels like we have way too much summer vacation.

It seems pretty obvious to me that one kid doesn't need extra math homework if they're already grasping everything covered in their four weekly hours of scheduled class time without needing extra drills or home study. On the flip side, five hours a week might still not be enough for another student, yet those extra two hours often just end up being a way to pad out a teacher's workload (what they call "increasing the norm").
What’s really the point of grouping two students like that in the same classroom?
(You could use plenty of other examples here)

And why would the child from that first example even stay in an A2 level program? What are they supposed to do there?
Just sit around waiting for the B1 curriculum? Which they might not even enjoy, or they might spend the first three months realizing they aren't interested—or maybe they realize the teacher is great, but they can't just quit in the middle of the school year and switch to something else because of scheduling conflicts and losing credits. It's not like they can just drop out to join a paid extracurricular activity... or something free at a local community center (of which there are plenty).

Check out Eurydice and you'll see how it works.
I don't get why it's not clear to everyone. To me, it's simple: kids who need support should get that support within their own school, and those who need more intensive help should get that in that same school too. They don't necessarily need to be sitting in the same room with the same teacher.

Sarah Hall53 said:well, I guess we'll just end up bumping one of those three up. 👍

Right—because it’s perfectly fine for hourly rates to skyrocket everywhere else in the world, but if it happens here in the States, suddenly it’s a national crisis.

Sarah Hall53 said:it's actually until 4pm

It’s about time.
The reality is that this reform needs to fundamentally overhaul our school system. We’re lagging behind—especially when it comes to instructional hours (we're practically at the bottom of the pack in the European Union), teacher pay, and overall student performance.

Susan James said:Haha, so we just took the full-day schedule from Europe but kept the exact same curriculum?🙏

We'll probably just buy some Walmart couches to get that Scandinavian vibe, while everything else stays exactly the same.

Well, obviously the school environment is going to change—that’s the whole point of upgrading the infrastructure.

Sarah Hall53 said:It’s really just an option—something there if people actually want it. It isn't some mandatory thing forced on everyone from first through eighth grade.

Well, in plenty of other countries, it's mandatory up to, say, 15 hours—and from what I gather about this proposal, he'd be required for 15, not 17.

All across Europe, full-day schooling is pretty much the standard—there's actually plenty of research to back it up. Here in the States, we'll likely spend the next four years researching and tweaking things to fit our specific system.

Sarah Hall53 said:Honestly, this whole twisted setup they've cooked up is just... wow. It's awful.
I am all for reforms that are actually backed by real research—you know, things that make sense—but I am definitely NOT for THIS mess they're trying to feed us.
First off, we’re going to see a massive exodus of teachers leaving the school system. Seriously, forget it. If this happens, I'm out. I'll go do literally anything else that offers a standard eight-hour workday where I don't have to bring my job home with me. Because right now, they're basically designing an eight-hour shift that secretly requires you to do endless prep work at your kitchen table.
The second thing that's going to happen is a huge surge in homeschooling lobbying. Once this absolute disaster is actually implemented, a ton of parents are just going to pull their kids out of the public schools entirely—because they simply refuse to let their children be stuck in that environment from age 8 to 16.

Has anyone actually sat down and read this document? Because I have, and frankly, I wouldn't wish this on myself or my own kid.

It won't be easy for everyone to just pull their kids out, though. In most places, homeschooling is really only an option for families with a certain level of financial stability.
As for the all-day schedule—well, I'll keep my fingers crossed that your child doesn't end up being part of this "experimental" school phase. Usually, after these types of experiments run for four or five years, the system eventually settles into a more practical version.

Sarah Hall53 said:I'm really crossing my fingers that they do.

Wait, why? Are you against reforms backed by five-year studies? Or do you just prefer the "gut feeling" approach?

Susan James said:I guess they'll just buy them ergonomic office chairs then. 🤣

The idea of having childcare available while parents work isn't inherently bad, and it could help kids get everything done during school hours. But after third grade, it starts losing its purpose, and by fourth grade, it feels totally pointless. Especially for the kids who play sports, take music lessons, or just pick up concepts faster than others... there's no way schools, given the current space and staffing levels, can offer enough variety to keep kids busy until 3 PM or 6 PM while still letting them have a life outside of school.

Instead of pouring money into this nonsense, they should have used it to implement a meaningful, mandatory preschool program. That way, kids across the entire US would enter kindergarten with the same foundation and the skills needed to succeed from day one.
In the year before they start formal schooling, kids really need about 400-500 hours of prep. Right now, it's organized so haphazardly. For example, in places like New York City, kids might show up twice a week for two hours, barely eating lunch with other children. They do some worksheets, but those aren't standardized—they just depend on whether the teacher is feeling creative or helpful that day. Most educators claim this was forced on them and they aren't equipped for it. Instead of throwing money at a "full-day" project (just trying to copy models from Finland), they should have invested in a "pre-K grade" to ensure every kid gets a fair shot at the starting line.

I am all for innovation, but this is just useless. And it's not even new; we practically had this back in the '80s, just without grades and with different uniforms.
I actually like the idea of increasing teacher pay, but what does that matter if some kids will be bored out of their minds (and getting scolded for fidgeting), while others find the workload too heavy, especially in specialized subjects? Why keep them in school just for the sake of keeping them there, maybe hoping they'll eventually learn something? And all this just so we can match the hourly rates in Europe or wherever else?

Changes to preschool are definitely coming.
As for this "all-day" thing, it doesn't even really exist yet. Nobody could sustain it—not the students and certainly not the teachers. We're talking about the concept of full-day schooling, which is a different beast entirely.

Take a quick look at the digital database over at the SEC and you'll see there are actually way more vocational schools than traditional high schools. In fact, about 3/5 of students in the US opt for vocational training—so much for that idea that everyone heads straight for a four-year college prep track while anyone else is considered a failure.