Happy Back to School Season!

[Roscablo]

I think post-Labor Day starts are more of a northeastern thing. But because the culture revolves around the Acela corridor I would always see things like comic strips and national ad campaigns hitting back to school themes a month after we started down here.

In years past there have been some systems here starting as early as July 31. I think we've backed off a little from that abyss.

We used to live in Arizona and still have friends there. It seems they start first week of August at the latest, and I am pretty positive there have been some end of Julys. It is weird until you think about how they can't do anything outside in the summer anyway.

 

[waterytart]

We used to live in Arizona and still have friends there. It seems they start first week of August at the latest, and I am pretty positive there have been some end of Julys. It is weird until you think about how they can't do anything outside in the summer anyway.

That’s why they don’t do DST. Put that hour of sunlight early, not after the blazing afternoon.

 

[bumpy mcgee]

Kids start tomorrow. freshman-to-be daughter is taking her anxiety-induced rage over starting high school out on everything from a dentist appointment to lunch options to what her little brother is playing with. the aforementioned little brother, who starts second grade, is excited that the cafeteria is no longer serving green beans on Pizza Fridays. It's been a helluva Wednesday.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

My HS usually started the day after Labor Day b/c that's when the county fair ended. Too many farm kids just didn't show up until after the fair if we started before then.

Just the other day I checked, and they are still doing it.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

School for us doesn't start until the Wednesday before Labor Day. We're using that as an opportunity to take a trip next week. All the camps around here are done, as the counselors are going back to college. There are a few holdout districts that go back after Labor Day, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

 

[swingline]

My kids start Aug. 19. One a sixth-grader, the other a junior. Seems early to me. I think we started a week later when I was a kid. Then again, that’s 40 years and tankers of beer and a forest of weed ago,

 

[Driftwood]

Educators are not ****ing babysitters.
If you think dealing with your own kids for a few weeks in the summer is a burden, try it the rest of the year.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Educators are not ****ing babysitters.
If you think dealing with your own kids for a few weeks in the summer is a burden, try it the rest of the year.

I don't think anybody here thinks they are.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Educators are not ****ing babysitters.
If you think dealing with your own kids for a few weeks in the summer is a burden, try it the rest of the year.

They are now. All the MAGA clods realized they liked the free babysitting during the pandemic, hence, why people who can't add two and two (unlike @Hermes' kid!) are so concerned with education this decade.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Is it normal for school to start after Labor Day?

Yes. Our district has always started the Wednesday after Labor Day except for one year recently when they started the day after for some reason that escapes me.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

That was the biggest perk when I was still newspapering. I'd be home with the kiddo until 1 or 2 in the afternoon every day before I went to the office. I'm glad you're getting something like that.

As for the math thing, that's dang impressive.

That was one of the biggest things for our family. I watched the kids during the day while my wife worked and she watched them at night. We did quite a few meetups at convenience stores to tag team. We also avoided having to put them in daycare.

My Mom would come over occasionally to help out so I could get some semblance of sleep.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

That was one of the biggest things for our family. I watched the kids during the day while my wife worked and she watched them at night. We did quite a few meetups at convenience stores to tag team. We also avoided having to put them in daycare.

My Mom would come over occasionally to help out so I could get some semblance of sleep.

I firmly believe people who complain about day care are some of the most entitled people in the world. If you can afford day care, you're better off financially than the rest of us. And I'd rather be a little less well off and have all those memories of hanging out with my preschool daughter than having blown God knows how much money on day care.

 

[maumann]

One of the main reasons why the school year is so odd has been the "invention" of fall break, Christmas break and spring break, in addition to "teacher work days/possible snow days." Georgia requires 180 days of in-class instruction but districts are willing to steal summer vacation in order to break up things for the 10-month employees.

Teachers reported back to school around here July 28 and the first day of school was Aug. 1. North Carolina and Georgia have always had crazy early start days, which was terrible when Gwen was teaching but great now that we're retired. We can get into town and home before 2 p.m. and beat the school buses instead of knowing Helen is packed with tourists tubing the Hooch.

Heck, I understand the reluctance of going year-round but to be honest, we're 90 percent of the way there now. Teachers who I know who have taught year-round really liked being able to complete eight or 10 weeks on a track instead of having their quarters/semesters arbitrarily broken up by holiday breaks.

I don't remember living anywhere -- Florida, Texas, California -- where summer vacation lasted until Labor Day. Fresno State was on semesters, so classes started the last week of August, when it's an oven-baked 100-105 degrees every afternoon. Perhaps the school schedules in the south are a byproduct of having central air conditioning in most classrooms (the notable exceptions being the Godforsaken portables in Boca Raton in fifth grade) compared to schools in the midwest and northeast.

But I also don't remember having to get to elementary school by 7 or 7:15. I did have 8 a.m. courses in high school but that allowed me to compete in sports or outside work experience. And I was on the air every morning at WRUF my junior and senior year at Florida, so getting to a 9 a.m. class was no big deal.

 

[waterytart]

Classes start here at 7:15 for high school, 8:15 for elementary, and 9:15 for middle.

The special part was the robocall at 4:00 a.m. to let you know the school day was cancelled for weather, so you didn’t need to wake up.

 

[Driftwood]

I don't think anybody here thinks they are.

Maybe not here, but many do. You should hear people complain when school is out for weather or something: "I have to work. What am I supposed to do with my kid?"

 

[waterytart]

If you work a job where you get no days off and you don’t have family in the area, what are you supposed to do? That’s a legitimate problem for a lot of people. It doesn’t mean they think teachers are babysitters. It means their lives only work when nothing goes wrong.

 

[UNCGrad]

This is our first year of the kid not being in school, having graduated college last year. A very odd feeling.

And I was like a lot of you who worked a second shift in sports so I spent a lot of time with her growing up, especially when her mom was a nurse working 12-hour shifts. I was on my own a lot, and I proudly never took one of those days for granted.

 

[dixiehack]

I was a first shift SAHD with my son too thanks to newspaper schedules (and later night school). We moved back to Alabama when he was 3 and I started working straight jobs. He stayed with my mother-in-law, who kept a home day care. My daughter went that route the whole way through.

Those memories with my son are what sustain me when the emotions get hard.

 

[Roscablo]

When my oldest was born I worked at night (and was working at night anyway as a copy and news editor) and my wife went to school during the day. Then we moved for her residency and I got a traditional timed job, and had a second kid, so we had to do child care. It was insane then and we got a discount through her work. That only lasted a couple of years, I hated the job (first non-newspaper job but still journalism) and went full SAHD. I was doing it all anyway, and it truly was a money saver then, especially on a journalist's salary. And while I have worked off and on since that has basically been the setup. I've always been the primary caregiver and not sure how we would have made it otherwise.

Only two left in school out of four. I have had brushes with real office work recently and they are old enough for us to figure it out without too much issue, but it is still a factor. Being there for them, not the school babysitting. Amazing how many activities, especially school sports, are at like 3 on a Tuesday too.

Anyway, there is a balance on schools taking care of kids and working. The kids have to go to school, most people have to work. Kind of hard when there is a two-hour early start or release to figure it out for a lot of people.

I think I brought it up here, but our school district has a heat day schedule. It is mildly annoying because I think their guidelines are a little liberal of when it is too hot (the buildings get hot regardless) and then the whole starting two weeks earlier than they should. But my wife's work is the largest employer here and the school district is the second largest. So my wife's work has a policy if the school district is out you can take off without using any personal time, sick or vacation. So far every day this week has been a heat day, which is a two-hour early release. She said there wasn't a lot of coverage today.

 

[Driftwood]

What do I expect people to do when they have to take responsibility for the own children and life choices? I don't know, but it certainly isn't complain about the school system and teachers.