In Albert Lea, there is a discussion regarding a balanced calendar. In many of the districts that have embraced this, the summer has been shortened to eight weeks but here 10 weeks is being considered. The year would be divided into four quarters with two-week breaks between.

Potentially this would decrease the summer knowledge “slide.” Teachers say it takes three to six weeks to return to the previous semester’s level, a colossal waste of time and resources. The first part of the school year till the Christmas break is very long with few days off, leading to burnout in both students and teachers. I can attest to this having had eight children go through conventional school calendars. The two-week October break can alleviate this. As per this year, October can be a great month and this would allow children of the many local hunters to accompany their parents. The two-week breaks offer a much better opportunity for year-round remediation and gifted programs. Interestingly, most studies also show an improvement in discipline and a reduction in truancy.

The preponderance of studies have shown that a balanced calendar has resulted in an improvement in educational results, albeit small. This is particularly true in more disadvantaged students. Albert Lea is a fairly poor community with more than 50 percent of the students qualifying for free or reduced meals and would have a higher chance of benefitting from this change.

As a member of the curriculum committee for 10 years, I have seen the struggle to improve our schools. Our present administration has done a phenomenal job and our results are approaching the state average. This is another effort to improve things further and improve our standards and graduation rate.

Emotionally we would all like to keep things the way they were when we were children. Unfortunately, things change and with the knowledge explosion, there is so much more to learn. Anything that can increase the ability of our children to learn will better prepare them for their future careers.

I realize that the more privileged students may not derive as much benefit, but we should take a more global view in looking at what is best for students as a whole.

 

John Laurie

Albert Lea