Following up on an earlier request for schools to coordinate when they begin the school year, to avoid too much time off for children in between camp and the new school year, Torah Umesorah announced today that the Brooklyn Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs have worked together to implement an earlier start date.
Lakewood parents have long been requesting that the local schools also work together and coordinate with each other on an earlier start time, and it remains to be seen whether such a policy will be implemented here as well.
See the letter below:
Lakewood boys schools are starting earlier then this.
Yes!!
This sounds a bit silly, as Lakewood Chadorim have been opening about Rosh Chodesh Ellul and don’t close until Chodesh Av, which is coordinated with the same schedule as the Mesivtas and Yeshiva Gedolas in Town.
Bais Yaakov Girls should spend some time at home with their mothers and learn to be good yiddishe mammes.
That would be fine if the girls are doing infact helping out at home. Unfortunately, most are not. They use the time to go shopping, hanging out with friends, and spending money. Not a good, productive use of anyone’s time.
This has to be the most insensitive and hurtful comment I read in awhile.
I wish people used better judgment when posting on line.
As Get Real said
Not sure what is hurtful to you, there isn’t really a good reason to have nothing to do for a few weeks in the summer
Why Not have school
Batala maivi
I think the spending money part of the text is what came across as insensitive.
I want you to know the NJ Government is very poorly destroying our School Bus Drivers. There aren’t enough school bus drivers as today. Before Covid-19 There were plenty of School Bus Drivers and now today there aren’t enough. This is NJ Government responsibility. Yes I agree school should start on time and bring education in Enterainment way. This will bring children motivation to learn better. Many teachers are teaching very bored ways. The only way education would work to actually do this way. Trust me I know it work well.
Of course they should coordinate
The Boys schools have done this for years already.
It is the Girls Schools that have been lagging.
@What for – because in couple years from now the school year will start about week before yom tov and your kids will know zero about yom tov. Additionally even now the gap between camp and School is about week and half for boys and 2.5 weeks for girls . Which does not allow for parents to go to work , will create ruchnius issues for kids , destroy any chance of family get away because of lack of coordination .
Yes
Lakewood boys schools already start earlier and we still have a break. All that happens is that the day camps end earlier the next year.
But they shud have the same camp schedule as the boys which leaves school ending time to be the same.
This would be so amazing. The girls have almost 3 weeks vacation. The schools are in la-la-land if they think that kids older than 6 are safely entertained. They are in front of screens or roaming for most of the day. Parents have jobs. This is the reality.
How’s this gonna help the Shidduch crisis?
The girls schools need to fix Fridays. What is the point of going to school for basically an hour and a half? 11:30 end time is too early and sometimes the girls are already home at 11:30. I understand it all depends on the busses but maybe end AFTER the public school routes, especially when Shabbos is later, and have the girls come home at 1-1:30 instead of 11:30.
I just don’t understand, schools (especially girls schools) expect parents to pay full tuition, which personally I am happy to do and BH I can afford it, I understand it is an investment in my child’s future and I want to put in my all. But in order to afford it, myself and my spouse need to work. That means Friday also, not leaving work basically an hour after I get there. Can anyone shed some light on this? Is there something I am missing?
What about the kids who can’t stand school and find it unbearably boring? Now they must sit through more of it?
School used to be for the benefit of the children. No more. Now it’s to benefit the parents. Who cares if it’s difficult for many of the kids to sit for so long. Parents have to go to work.
Of course, all that money they earn will go to pay for therapists as the kids grow up.
Are you suggesting that kids should have school every day of the week until 11:30? They sit through school Monday – Thursday for much much longer. Friday would still be a shorter day to have to sit through for the kids who have a hard time. Also, if a kid really has that hard of a time sitting through class on every other day of the week then intervention is warranted, an extra hour on Friday will make no difference.
I’m not talking about parents who are workaholics and have to make tons of money to go on crazy vacations, outfit their kids in the best, etc. I’m talking about simple ehrliche people who are just trying to pay their bills, who have a means to do so by going to work, but are forced to either use their sick days, take a paycut, or hire a babysitter every Friday (for $15-20 an hour!).
I challenge you to ask any therapist (I have a background in childhood development myself), they will tell you that one of the most important things for a child is structure. Especially on a long Friday, what is a child doing when they get home from school at 11:30? Unless they are in a home where the chinuch is to help for Shabbos, they are doing just about nothing.
Perhaps camp should go longer instead of school? Or maybe it should be school with a bit more camp atmosphere which would make it enjoyable. Maybe tora u mesora should get involved in what the girls and boys are learning instead of when they should start learning. Boys need to focus more on middos tovos and derech eretz bitachon and bus behavior and Girls should be learning more about how to be an aim biyisroel, bitachon and real life practices than boring subjects and memorizing Gemara. Sorry but something has got to give. Maybe if the children would be more interested in school they wouldn’t need to occupy themselves with things they shouldn’t be when they’re not in school. Just saying!
Yes, completely agree!! Whatever the structure is, whether it is camp or school, there has to be structure. 2 1/2 plus weeks is wayyyy too long to be doing nothing. And I don’t know many people who can afford to entertain their children with day trips for that long. It gets expensive, and frankly boring for the kids.
If we can coordinate the benefits will be tremendous. The playgroups will need to coordinate too and then it will benefit the teachers too. We can all work together to keep kids off the streets.
Fake news. Speak to people in Brooklyn. The schools as a whole, including BY of Boro Park are not starting early. This is a campaign to pressure schools into joining the supposed “movement”. For the record I have no personal opinion on this issue, I can see the point of view of both Pro and against it.
What happens when rosh chodesh elul is mid August. Are they going to start charging tuition for August? We pay for half of June.
Torah mesorah raised the teachers salary and with it came major tuition hikes which many people can’t cover.
Will starting in Aug result in another tuition hike.
In E”Y schools have much less summer vacation. The way they accomplish this without student and teacher burnout is that after school ends the girls have about a month of camp in school where the counselors can be switched morahs, the assistant teacher, or even the regular teacher if she wants the extra income. THey have unbelievable well planned activities and the kids are very happy. Then they have off for bein hazmanim only (boys) or bein hazmanim + a couple of weeks (5 weeks altogether) for girls. It is PLENTY of time to recover from school, have a great summer vacation and come back to school refreshed. The kids who don’t do well in school get to enjoy a camp environment in the school building so they feel better about school as a whole. Perfect solution in my opinion. 80% of chareidi frum women in Israel work so this is what is needed to keep everyone’s lives running. BTW they have these camps in school for every other vacation too, Chanukah, pre-Pesach. No going crazy there to keep both parents at work while kids have way too much vacation.
Be more forthright. The real reason is the parents.if it was Elul, then start Rosh Chodesh.