SoylentNews

School Board Bans Snow Days, Will Make Kids Work Online Instead

posted by chromas on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:22PM   
from the it-snow-fair! dept.

Fnord666 writes:

A school board in South Carolina has launched a pilot program to get rid of snow days and instead have students work from home when the weather turns treacherous. Beyond depriving schoolkids of the joys of weather-enforced truancy, the plan will exacerbate the region's digital divide for student who don't have internet access at home.

Anderson County School District Five will be the first region to participate in the pilot program this upcoming school year. In the past, Anderson County had makeup days tacked on to the end of the school year in lieu of days missed due to bad weather, but most kids ended up just skipping them, according to a local news report.

Students from grades 3 through 12 in the school board are already given Chromebooks to use at home, so in the event of a snow day or other inclement weather that causes a shutdown, kids will be expected to log on from home, communicate with teachers, and complete assignments.

Source: MotherBoard

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Original Submission

• Re:13 years to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, Re:13 years to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, (Score: 4, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday August 04 2018, @11:12PM (2 children)

  by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <{axehandle} {at} {gmail.com}> on Saturday August 04 2018, @11:12PM (#717351)

  Math takes practice

  What kind of practice?

  The kind described by the link in this post. [soylentnews.org]

  Mindlessly memorizing patterns and routines does not cause one to think like a mathematician...

  Mindlessly memorising scales doesn't make a musician - but some of it has to be done at some stage.

  Also, how much practice? Some individuals learn faster than others, while others learn slower.

  As much practice as needed and no more.

  One-size-fits-all approaches are horrendous, even if they are cheap and easy.

  Agreed. Now we just need to fund all levels of education appropriately. I don't have any experience in the US education system, but it seems we have some problems in common.

  --
  It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
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• Re:13 years to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, Re:13 years to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @12:10AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @12:10AM (#717366)

  Mindlessly memorising scales doesn't make a musician - but some of it has to be done at some stage.

  Some memorization is necessary, so we agree on that. If you did not memorize anything, you'd have nothing to work with. Currently, however, there is so much focus on memorization that it impedes people's ability to understand the material.
   

  Parent

  • Re:13 years to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, (Score: 3, Insightful) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday August 05 2018, @04:19AM

    by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <{axehandle} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday August 05 2018, @04:19AM (#717431)

    ...Currently, however, there is so much focus on memorization that it impedes people's ability to understand the material.

    On this side of the puddle one of the problems we have is the lack of specialised teachers, so that there are times that the nearest warm body in the staff room takes maths classes - in which case the teacher also doesn't really understand the material.

    --
    It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.

    Parent