The article in the Examiner didn't really explain why switching to 7 classes would hurt kids. I can only say that from my own experiences kids are raced through the curriculum and then thrown a lot of homework really bogging them down. If the extend the classes maybe they can spend more time on the individual subjects. One of the parents makes the gratuitous assertion, "After the eighth period was implemented six years ago, [the school] went from a failing school to a very successful one". I think it is a bit of a leap to say 7 classes equals failure and 8 equals success. Certainly other factors must have played into the change. If 8 was sooo good why not go to 9...or 10.
Chris, I think there are two things at play here: some kids do better with longer class while others do better in shorter ones (and really, a school kind of has to pick one, so some kids will be at a disadvantage either way :-(), and with 7 periods instead of 8 to choose from, this vastly reduces electives offerings. I'm a music teacher who has seen too many kids drop band and chorus and orchestra because their magnet schedules allow one elective in one particular period of the day - and the music class (or art, or foreign language) isn't offered that period - and once they drop out of music ensembles, kids rarely return, so it can become a death sentence for a music program not just for the middle school (in this case) but for the receiving high school. Teachers are involuntarily transferred when enrollment drops and their allotment drops accordingly. And really, for many kids, middle school is their last chance to really be kids; they may not have any further opportunities to take those electives if they attend magnet high schools (a number of high school band positions are now substantially below half-time; Poolesville, which is all-magnet, is less than half-time), or if they start working in high school and don't have extracurricular time or money to do them outside school.
That's my perception of the problem with cutting back to 7 from 8, for what it's worth.
The article in the Examiner didn't really explain why switching to 7 classes would hurt kids. I can only say that from my own experiences kids are raced through the curriculum and then thrown a lot of homework really bogging them down. If the extend the classes maybe they can spend more time on the individual subjects. One of the parents makes the gratuitous assertion, "After the eighth period was implemented six years ago, [the school] went from a failing school to a very successful one". I think it is a bit of a leap to say 7 classes equals failure and 8 equals success. Certainly other factors must have played into the change. If 8 was sooo good why not go to 9...or 10.
ReplyDeleteChris, I think there are two things at play here: some kids do better with longer class while others do better in shorter ones (and really, a school kind of has to pick one, so some kids will be at a disadvantage either way :-(), and with 7 periods instead of 8 to choose from, this vastly reduces electives offerings. I'm a music teacher who has seen too many kids drop band and chorus and orchestra because their magnet schedules allow one elective in one particular period of the day - and the music class (or art, or foreign language) isn't offered that period - and once they drop out of music ensembles, kids rarely return, so it can become a death sentence for a music program not just for the middle school (in this case) but for the receiving high school. Teachers are involuntarily transferred when enrollment drops and their allotment drops accordingly. And really, for many kids, middle school is their last chance to really be kids; they may not have any further opportunities to take those electives if they attend magnet high schools (a number of high school band positions are now substantially below half-time; Poolesville, which is all-magnet, is less than half-time), or if they start working in high school and don't have extracurricular time or money to do them outside school.
ReplyDeleteThat's my perception of the problem with cutting back to 7 from 8, for what it's worth.