Curmudgeon's Corner
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
Clarification - Snow Days Made Up 5 Minutes At A Time...
The actual make-up day involved is the 'lost power' day at the High School. Snow days are to be dealt with separately. See comment below.
The first thing that leaped out of the Journal Sentinel story this morning was the statement that Germantown had received, so far, 115 inches of snow this season. The 'so far' is there just in case...but I really hope that isn't necessary.
The second thing was the manner in which the time lost will be made up to comply with the state requirement that those in kindergarten through 6th grade must complete a minimum of 1,050 hours of instruction per school year, and those in grades 7 through 12 must complete 1,137 hours of instruction. By adding 5 minutes to the start of every school day remaining this year, Germantown will accomplish these minimum numbers.
No doubt the addition of full days at the end of the school year is problematic given school lunch programs, parents' and teachers' plans and so on. I understand that both students and teachers want the last day scheduled to be the last day.
But, at the risk of angering some people, I have to say that I don't think the students actually gain much in the way of learning from the extra five minutes per day. Maybe they would gain just as little from two extra days being added at the end of the term. All this seems just a little on the farcical side from my jaundiced perspective.
If you were to work an extra five minutes per day at your job, you'd admittedly account for the time required by your boss...but would you really accomplish much of anything? I doubt it.
I don't have the answer to my implied question. But this approach seems nothing more than technically meeting some requirement that doesn't have much to do with what is or isn't learned. Could the state 'chill' a bit if that's what would be necessary? The last day or two of school never used to have much to do with education, and more to do with tidying up the area, turning the books in and making up things to keep us students 'occupied' while the clock seemed to tick once every five minutes. Those were the longest and most useless days of the year. Maybe all that has changed since this 'curmudgeon' was in school...but I'd really be surprised.
Okay. Take your best shot if you disagree...
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