Half-Days and Halflings

Sorry all you Tolkien fans out there but I was looking for a catchy title.  The vision I have are thousands of pint-sized kids enjoying an “early-release” day from Clover Park Schools.  Hence – halflings.

I don’t see myself in that vision – half grown at least.  I don’t remember early release days when I was a kid.  Not to say that there weren’t any.  Pretty much my memory, prior to high-school, is a bit fuzzy.  If I had them, I probably rejoiced – but that is ancient history.

I do deal with early release days as an adult – both as a parent and one who runs an after-school program.   The parent in me has dealt with and still deals with the logistics of what my kids are doing after such a ridiculously short day of school. Putting on my youth-worker hat, I observe noticeably ”wound up” kids coming into my after-school program.

I know the reasons for half days in the District.  I know that teachers need peer and planning time.  I know that time needs to be set aside for parent/teacher conferences.  The half-day that I agree with most is the day before Thanksgiving because kids need to be home to clean house and chop onions and celery for the stuffing.

But knowing all of the reasons, I still question the implementation.

1. Why are the students so wound-up so early in the afternoon?  What have they done – or not done, that takes away the exhaustion of learning?
2. Why do my kids come home after a half-day with little or no homework?  Why?

I know that those of us running after-school programs brace ourselves for early-release days.  We open early, plan more activities, and I for one take a couple of aspirin prior to the kids’ arrival – anticipating a migraine.

I also wonder how many parents cope with the almost-every-other-week-on-Wednesday-Clover Park-early-release-day-phenomena.  Do stay-at-home parents rejoice in their over-excited children being home early.  Do working parents scramble to find a caregiver for these particular days?  Are many kids home alone with nothing productive to do?

I have a couple of suggestions.

1. How about cramming two weeks worth of P.E. into half-days?  Exercise the students.  Have them run a couple of miles and play lots of high energy sports and games.   Get their physical education time in on early-release days and that leaves more academic time on regular days.
2. How about tons of homework on half days?  3 hours at least.  If half-days count as a school day then make it count for the kids.

Two solutions that can probably be shot down because they are not feasible to the reality of public schooling.  But for my part, and those of us who work with kids on half-days, we’ll get tired but healthy kids who have important stuff to do. We’ll have kids who will look at half days to be just as challenging as any other day.

Comments are always appreciated.  What are your thoughts about half days?