Obama Nixes Traditional Long School Summer Vacations

Brandon9000 wrote:

My argument boils down to:

1. Kids should be given more time off for playing than adults, so that they can have a childhood.
2. The long summer vacation is a wonderful experience for children

neither point of which seems pathetic to me.

Neither point is pathetic, but the argument is pathetic. You need to show that increasing time in school is less beneficial than summer vacation. What you're saying is that you like things the way they were, which is just an argument to tradition.

No, I don't need to show that. It's impossible to quantify, since it expresses only my feeling about childhood. I said that children should have significant amounts of time off each year so that they can be children, and that the long vacation seems to me to be a great part of being a child.

But in terms of time in school - I looked it up and as far as developed countries go - USA ranks pretty high. We put in the hours that a lot of other countries do - we just do it on a different schedule.
What I've read is not that we necessarily need to increase the time spent in school - we need to find ways to use it more productively.

I don't think there even was anything like an 'after-school' program- if we did homework, we did it at our own direction- if we played a game - we made up our own teams and rules, etc.

It's impossible to quantify, since it expresses only my feeling about childhood.

Brandon9000 wrote:

It's impossible to quantify, since it expresses only my feeling about childhood.

Then you're expressing your feelings and not making an argument. Stop trying to pretend it's anything different from that.

What is irrelevant is the drivel you are posting. The title of your thread says that Mr. Obama "nixes" traditional long school summer vacations. That's bullshit, we all know it, and you are shameless enough to accuse the man of something he cannot do.

I'll tell you what i'm doing in this thread. I'm pointing out that it is Chicken Little bullshit. Only local school boards can determine the length of any "break" or "vacation" time for their students, unless and until the relevant state boards of education decide to change that, or it is legislated by the relevant state assembly. At a stretch, one could imagine the Congress attempting to force the states to change their policies with regard to breaks and vacations.

Mr. Obama does not control what Congress does. Mr. Obama does not control what state assemblies do. Mr. Obama does not control what local school boards do. So your thread is a typical example of conservative Chicken Little hysteria.

That's what i'm doing in your thread, Brandon--i'm pointing that out. And as long as you continue to attempt to imply--dishonestly, i might add--that Mr. Obama has any such authority, i'll stay in your pathetic, lying, false hysteria thread.

If the article says he proposed, why does the title of your thread state that he "nixes" traditional long school summer vacations? The title is inflammatory and tendentious, and i suspect that was your intent. The alternative is to assume that you entitled it in a fit of stupidity, and it is not my experience that you are stupid.

I see we have here yet another lame attempt to suggest that one's interlocutor is angry. Don't flatter yourself, i am not and was not angry, and i certainly was not enraged. It's just a cheap rhetorical trick, beneath the dignity of a high school debate team, which attempts to suggest that one's interlocutor is responding emotionally, rather than logically, which is ground you inferentially claim for yourself. The title here is ample evidence of an appeal to emotion.

I think year round school would go a long way to address the problems faced by milliions of kids who spend the three months of summer hungry and unsupervised.

A long break is great as long as you've got money.

Everything except addressing the issue. Stop guessing my motives, which is not an argument, and discuss the actual topic of greatly shortening the summer vacation.

I'm in favor of extending the school day if it means kids get their needed recess. Many schools, pressured to cram more into the school day, have been cutting or eliminating recess. I think that's a tragedy. Lots of kids just end up going to after care anyway. If we extend the school day but allow kids to have at least a full hour of recess each day and then add more time for music or dance or sports, I think that would be great.

Lots of kids just end up going to after care anyway.