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Frustrated with our schools
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:09 am
Look, I'm sure everyone feels the same way. But the schools sent out their calendars, and I'm just SO FRUSTRATED.

I mean, why do our kids need so much time off? I'm anonymous because I say this to everyone I meet, but schools have to PICK A SIDE. My kids have off for both Jewish holidays AND national holidays. They get off for Thanksgiving and for Martin Luther King Day and for Presidents Day and for New Years and for Chanukah and for and entire week of midwinter break and for basically the entire September and April.

I work for a living, because tuition prices are out of control. And my feeling is, if I'm paying your exorbitant prices, I think we should have more school. I'm not sure why I have to pay for your three weeks of Pesach vacation. I mean, really? Are the Rabbis home all day cleaning? Are they cooking for Yom Tov? And for the women - guess what? I work all day, and I have to somehow make yom tov too. And "Isru Chag" - I mean, we just had all this time off, you can't get yourself back to school?

So now what I have to do is pay for tuition, THEN pay for these teenaged "camps" that pop up on these days at ridiculous prices.

To those that answer me - well, they do this for parents that go on vacation for yom tov. Well, I'm not sure why we schedule our school schedules around their lives. They can make up the work like anyone else.

To those that answer me, "well the teachers make so little money, this is their compensation". That I actually get, because women teachers are paid nothing. But the Rabbis? There's no reason why the boys can't at least have school instead of me hiring a babysitter so they can play video games on the tablet all day. AND, these teachers have the same problem - their kids are home all day, so who's actually getting all this work done for yom tov?

Just had to vent. It's not like anything is going to change. I just feel like schools think women don't work.
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watergirl




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:15 am
Yes. And add to that the parties that we have to take off work to attend. At 10:00 no less! Siyums, siddur, chumash, chanukah mesiba... never on a Sunday.
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amother
Powderblue


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:20 am
I'm a SAHM but when I look at the calendar my reaction was also- how are working parents expected to deal with this- there are sooo many days off and then early dismissal, late starts... how is this supposed to work for working parents? My dh once commented that I think February is the only month that are no days off.
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ShishKabob




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:20 am
It looks like whoever is in the school business thinks that everyone else has off when they do. They are the lucky ones that get off all that time and get paid for it! At least some people benefit from that!

I feel your pain and can commiserate.
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flowerpower




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:23 am
Jewish schools that are off for jewish holidays should NOT be closed for legal holidays too. It’s not fair.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:24 am
My sons yeshiva is actually good about this stuff BH. They have school every legal holiday and they make the parent events on sundays or first thing in the morning so I dont feel that its a burden on me but the biggest issue I see is that once camp ends, if your son is over 7 there is NOTHING until school starts. The rebbeim are all getting their classrooms ready and no high school girl wants to entertain ten year old boys. I can make it work but a lot of other families cant and its a real problem.
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amother
Green


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:29 am
Now that air conditioning has been invented there is also no reason to close up school for two months in the summer. When it was too hard to study because of the weather it made sense to go to the mountains for those months but nowadays it is totally ridiculous. Let them learn in July and have August off .

It will solve:
a) costs of camp
b) boredom
c) kids who go backwards because of such a long stretch without learning
d) peer pressure to do all kinds of crazy things
e) pressure on families to up their vacations

..... I am sure you can think of more to add to the list...

It is even more absurd in Israel where the girls have this time off because they follow the American model and the boys don't.....

and don't come to me with "the teachers need their break" because nowhere in the rest of the world do the schools have two months vacation and all the teachers seem to be fine. In fact, if the teachers were less stressed with paying for their kids vacations, maybe they would have more yishuv hadaas to teach..
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amother
Fuchsia


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:35 am
Being off on Jewish holidays when most adults working on the secular world work, is super frustrating. Why is it done?
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:35 am
I want to counter Green with one thing. My son had a rough school year this past year and camp has been amazing for him. Our school is adding 3 weeks of half day school half day camp for next year and I am so curious to see how it works out but I think any more then 3 weeks and many kids would really suffer. Camp provides a different experience that is really good for a lot of kids.
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amother
Green


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:41 am
mha3484 wrote:
I want to counter Green with one thing. My son had a rough school year this past year and camp has been amazing for him. Our school is adding 3 weeks of half day school half day camp for next year and I am so curious to see how it works out but I think any more then 3 weeks and many kids would really suffer. Camp provides a different experience that is really good for a lot of kids.


if you can afford camp......
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amother
Powderblue


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:44 am
mha3484- how did the parents react to being told that the school is giving more school days?
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esuss




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:47 am
mha3484 wrote:
I want to counter Green with one thing. My son had a rough school year this past year and camp has been amazing for him. Our school is adding 3 weeks of half day school half day camp for next year and I am so curious to see how it works out but I think any more then 3 weeks and many kids would really suffer. Camp provides a different experience that is really good for a lot of kids.


My boys have this since they are in first grade. The first week of school and the last 2-3 weeks of school are until 1;00. The last 2 weeks of school there are camp programs that I could send them to in the afternoon. Then they have 6 weeks of full day camp. Also the learning is more relaxed and they have more incentives during those times. I love it as I am working and my boys love it. They have less than one week in between full day camp program and when school starts this year. I think this is perfect for both of us. I wish all schools would do this.
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amother
Floralwhite


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:49 am
This doesn't apply to places like Brooklyn and Lakewood where there are too many choices of schools, but in small communities where there are only one or two schools for boys and one or two for girls, it is super frustrating when they don't coordinate their vacations. My son's school is giving off one part of Chanukah, and my daughter's school the other. Same for Mid Winter vacation. These are the only two Yeshivos in my community.
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:52 am
watergirl wrote:
Yes. And add to that the parties that we have to take off work to attend. At 10:00 no less! Siyums, siddur, chumash, chanukah mesiba... never on a Sunday.


OP here. YES. My husband and I have to switch off who has to go for what, and that's the only way we can deal. I mean, my boys have school on Sunday anyway, I don't get what would be so hard about making it on a Sunday morning?
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:56 am
flowerpower wrote:
Jewish schools that are off for jewish holidays should NOT be closed for legal holidays too. It’s not fair.



THANK YOU. And when I complained to the principal that I don't understand why my boys have off for New Years, which is a xtian holiday, I was told it was so that my husband could learn with my sons. Um, he has to work? Patients don't disappear from hospitals on the holidays.

I joke that they would totally have no school on Xmas, but it's actually the one holiday the Jewish Federation says they can't give time off for.
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amother
Burgundy


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:56 am
amother wrote:
This doesn't apply to places like Brooklyn and Lakewood where there are too many choices of schools, but in small communities where there are only one or two schools for boys and one or two for girls, it is super frustrating when they don't coordinate their vacations. My son's school is giving off one part of Chanukah, and my daughter's school the other. Same for Mid Winter vacation. These are the only two Yeshivos in my community.


Boy and girl schools deliberately give different days of vacations off so the families can't travel.
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amother
Gray


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 10:59 am
amother wrote:
I'm a SAHM but when I look at the calendar my reaction was also- how are working parents expected to deal with this- there are sooo many days off and then early dismissal, late starts... how is this supposed to work for working parents? My dh once commented that I think February is the only month that are no days off.


OP here. NOPE! There's President's Day. Because that's a super important day I never knew about until my children started attending Yeshiva. No workplace I know of gives that time off, unless you're a postal office, a library, or public school.
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amother
Burlywood


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 11:03 am
amother wrote:


and don't come to me with "the teachers need their break" because nowhere in the rest of the world do the schools have two months vacation and all the teachers seem to be fine. In fact, if the teachers were less stressed with paying for their kids vacations, maybe they would have more yishuv hadaas to teach..

What do you mean nowhere else has 2 months vacation? Israel does (even two months and ten days for grade 7 and up). Canada does. Just off the top of my head.

And why do you think teachers are stressed paying for kids' vacations? They are home with them.

Anyway, in Israel at least, the paid two months vacation is one of the big incentives to teach. It's hard enough to teach here as it is. If the vacation were significantly cut, even fewer people would go into teaching.

I guess they could raise salaries instead, but in the states at least that would cause a tuition raise.
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amother
Burgundy


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 11:14 am
amother wrote:
OP here. NOPE! There's President's Day. Because that's a super important day I never knew about until my children started attending Yeshiva. No workplace I know of gives that time off, unless you're a postal office, a library, or public school.


There is problem with busing on legal holidays.
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amother
Mustard


 

Post Tue, Aug 07 2018, 11:14 am
amother wrote:
Boy and girl schools deliberately give different days of vacations off so the families can't travel.


Because it would be a travesty for an oot family to visit their Brooklyn grandparents?
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