The Cupertino Courier

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Summer's here: It's time for picking, cutting 'cots

By Joseph DiSalvo

Just as the apricots ripen, need to be picked, cut in half, pitted and then dried for packing, the school year has come to a merciful end. The valley's canneries are gearing up for the influx of new young labor and the millions of tons of fruit and tomatoes that will need to be processed and canned. Fortunately, school calendars have been created to revolve around the planting, harvesting and processing of the crops.

OK. OK. No longer is our valley an oasis of bountiful orchards. No longer do children need to work in the valley's fields of fruit or in the canneries. However, that antiquated agrarian calendar still continues to dominate public education. For more than a century, the traditional school calendar has begun late in the summer and continues to late in the spring. And for what reason today do we subscribe to this farming calendar?

California's public school students spend 180 days in school, or 36 weeks out of a 52-week year. The endless summer is 10 weeks long. Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley says, "A summer-long vacation interrupts a smooth education and leaves kids with too much idle time, particularly for disadvantaged students." Parents strain to find meaningful experiences for their children.

Perhaps the two candidates who were fortunate to win the contentious primary election for mayor of San Jose, the nation's 10th largest city, can foster a general election community discussion on an alternative school calendar, where the amount of time for learning is determined by research.

The mayoral candidates spoke eloquently about the need to improve our schools during the primary campaign. Yes, you're right; tradition is hard to break and the inertia extreme. However, bold and courageous leadership can conquer this reluctance to change.

Let's examine some of the issues inherent in a 10-week summer hiatus from school:

* Many children are bored after the first three weeks of summer vacation;

* There is a "summer" learning loss for all children in spelling and math;

* The working poor in our valley do not have the money to spend on camps, swimming and tennis lessons, and for some there's not enough money to fill gas tanks to travel to local venues;

* Juvenile crime rises in summer months;

* The summer recreation programs of yesteryear in neighborhood schools and parks have been slashed from municipal budgets.

With these issues in mind, should we continue the school calendar based on our agrarian past, or should we begin a serious community dialogue about best practices in other states and countries on the distribution and amount of time in school? Bring on the discussion.

Here are some discussion starters:

In July 2005, the Hawaii Board of Education unanimously approved a uniform statewide public school calendar that gives students one week off in the fall, three weeks in the winter, two weeks in the spring and seven weeks in the summer. This new calendar will begin in the 2006-07 school year. According to surveys taken by the Hawaii Board of Education, the least popular option was the traditional (agrarian) calendar.

Single Track Year-Round calendars distribute the 180 days in different ways. Currently, there are 1,447 public schools in California with a year-around calendar, accounting for 1,264,058 students.

All California and Santa Clara County public schools adhere to the state-mandated 180-day school year. School years in other countries that we compete with on international tests offer extended days of instruction. In China the school year can be as long as 250 days, 225 days in India, 210 days in Australia and 200 days in many nations in Europe. Our 180 school year puts us at a competitive disadvantage.

Of course, extending the year could be a good thing for Santa Clara County's school- children, but at a considerable expense to the state. The cost is approximately 1 percent of increased state funding for every two days added to the 180-day year.

Today's students are expected to know and do much more than students in other decades. Increasing days of instruction is not the sole answer. The increase in days must come with a commensurate increase in the effectiveness of the instructional model and quality of teaching.

In the meantime, here are a few suggestions of camps for the summer of '06:

* Archbishop Mitty Summer Enrichment Camps: Ages fifth- through eighth-grade, co-ed. Call 408.342.4200 or email mbistricky@mitty.com;

* Saratoga Springs Day Camp: Ages 5-12; hiking, swimming, themes, art and crafts. Call 408.867.3061 or email daycamp@saratoga-springs.com;

* Metro Day Camp for Girls: This is a Girl Scout camp, but non-Girl Scouts are welcome. Ages 6-14. Call 408.287.3061 or email happycamper@girlscoutsofscc.org ;

* Summer Chess Camp: Call 408. 449.9298;

* The Tech Museum: Hands-on science and technology classes at the museum. Call 800.854.3684 or email techcamps@ galileoed.com.

Joseph DiSalvo has been a teacher and principal in Santa Clara County for 32 years; he is also an adjunct professor of education at Santa Clara University. He can be reached at josephsds1@aol.com.