Posted on 07/18/2012 10:46:16 AM PDT by Sir Napsalot
Note: Bloomberg materials are blocked on FR.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-17/how-summer-is-making-u-s-kids-dumber-and-fatter.html
click link to read material.
I don't know how Peter Orszag propose to do away with summers ......
The elitists want us to be just like China.
We need year-round school to compete globally
So summer is just like the school year now.
Peter Orszag is the guy who keeps abandoning his own offspring whenever he finds a new honey more to his sexual tastes. This sleezebag has as much credibility on raising kids as Jerry Sandusky.
This article is a liberal, tripe, POS. All the responsibilty is taken away from the parents and the chillen. It promotes more worthless gummit programs and higher taxes as a result. GAWD, I’m sick of these idiots and their “fixes”!
I have 2 daughters. 18 and 15. Both are slender and athletic. One plays tennis 6x’s a week as she prepares for her 1st year on her college tennis team. She works as a lifeguard at our pool. The other belongs to a gym where she works out everyday and is also in Christian Youth Theatre. THAT’S how you keep your kids healthy and smart. Am I bragging? A little. And yes, along with my wife, we did this entirely on our own!
For one thing, the tourism industry would suffer tremendously, especially theme parks, like Disney World and Universal Studios.
This is Obamas smart guy. Summer break makes us fatter and dumber.
In the 40’s through the 70’s, summer break was much longer. Always late May, not resuming until after Labor day. Yet, by every measure, that generation with more time off each summer was smarter and more fit. If his premise were true, our kids should be much better than they were.
Lol, what a joke
Gosh, everyone remembers back when summer breaks were even longer than today. Why, they were all fat, couldn’t read, make change, send rockets to the moon, create Disneyland, create every industry known to man, and American life surely wasn’t the envy of the world,,, oh wait./
You sit on your butt all day and don't even exercise your brain, and you are going to get dumber and fatter.
In the old days, mom would make the kids go outside to play. They'd invent games, create stuff, be physically active. Now mom is at work or just plain lazy, so the kids do whatever they want (which is nuttin good).
I am told, today’s kids develope very advanced video gaming fighting skills, for unmanned vehicles and/or drones.
That’s at least something .....
My niece went to a Catholic girls prep school They have a school year of about 170 days. They get a week off for Thanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas. They also get a spring break. A couple of years ago, they didn’t bother to make up many of their snow days. The principal told the teachers to just push the girls harder.
Every single girl in her class graduated and went on to a good college.
My sister-in-law is a teacher there and she says they don’t waste time. Maybe that’s the answer?
If the public schools can’t do it in 180 days, 6 or 7 hours a day, maybe they should just pack it in.
Whatever they do, nothing seems to work.
>> “ and she says they don’t waste time. Maybe that’s the answer?” <<
.
Close!
The answer is that it is specifically a Prep school, and not a babysitting and indoctrination service for idiots.
.
I realize that defending this jerk, on this site, is probably not in my best interest, but I’ll do it anyway.
With my kids, I taught them reading. Reading took 6 weeks from knowing the alphabet to being able to read a children’s book cover to cover - it’s that easy with PHONICS (and that was before age 4). From there, it was another 6 months to get them to the point where they could handle punctuation and other aspects - essentially they were reading at adult levels by age 5 and way faster than myself by age 10.
But math was tougher. In that case, at my best, I could get them through 4 grade levels of math in one year. To do that meant using a great curriculum (i.e., Saxon) and NOT giving them a break between the grade levels (other than a few days). Without the break, they were able to skip between 10 and 20 percent of each Saxon book, as those sections were simply reviews of what they learned the prior year - but with no (real) break, they simply were not needed. In the end, my kids were 6 to 8 years ahead of their grade level in math, right into college. Made things easy for them - and no, they are not geniuses - they are (unfortunately) normal, so they’re lazy, easily distracted (although spankings certainly did help their focus), have limited common sense - to the point that we joke about it.
Bottom line - if you want your kids to do well, ignore summer break - it was a concept that made sense at the time (when we had farms), but makes no sense now.
But. But. But.
You are not defending Peter Orszag!!!!
What you said is completely differnt than what Orszag proposed.
Tell my 75 year old father and 78 year old aunt that as they enjoy their time with my 14 year old daughter this week. And again 2 weeks from now.
Just because it worked for your children/family does not mean it should be the rule for others.
Bottom line - do what you think is best for your own children and do not try telling others what is best for their children.
“But. But. But. You are not defending Peter Orszag!!! What you said is completely differnt than what Orszag proposed.”
To be honest, I didn’t read the whole thing, so that’s good. I was more interested in pointing out that I agree that a lot is lost over a long summer break (and it is very long, at that age). Skip that, and a lot of review is simply not needed.
“Just because it worked for your children/family does not mean it should be the rule for others...Bottom line - do what you think is best for your own children and do not try telling others what is best for their children.”
Don’t take it the wrong way. You’re more than welcome to do as you wish and I support you in it.
Actually I’m happy about the existing system. It allowed my kids to look like friggen geniuses, when they’re, at best, normal.
Having the competition give up 4 months of learning each year is JUST FINE by me - as it only puts my kids further up the curve.
Whatever.
“Whatever.”
Like I say, to each their own...and thank you (in your case).
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