|
|
About Us | Contact Us | Subscribe | |
|
||
|
|
News & EventsColumn - Alice Miles, the Times, 1 June 07 - Why don’ t we abolish half-term breaks?I always enjoy the half-term break. Plenty of space on the train to London, no queue for taxis, quiet roads, an empty office – and no MPs at work in the House of Commons either, so nothing to worry about there. But it also got me wondering yesterday: how do we function as a country with so much of the workforce forced to take time off work in staccato bursts so many times a year? Now that seven out of ten women with dependent children are in work, rather than waiting at home to greet the holidaying offspring, the half-term break has become a seriously disruptive business, to companies as well as to parents. But the alternative to empty desks – sending children to after-school clubs or childminders or other cobbled-together and confusing arrangements – not only isn’t very inspiring, it fails to provide the “down time” that the half-term break is designed to offer a child. They might as well be at school. The half-term break is a product of the long school terms that we have. Exhausted children (and teachers) cannot make their way through 13 or 14 weeks of school without becoming worn out, a problem that anecdotally seems to be increasing with constant testing and mounting pressure to jump through various performance hoops in our grindingly unimaginative school system. Children’s energy levels cannot be helped, either, by well-meaning parents who pile on violin and ballet and tennis and Mandarin lessons at the end of the school day. More: www.timesonline.co.uk Previous News & EventsFebruary 2010November 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 January 2009 November 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 January 2008 January 2008 November 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 November 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 January 2005 January 2005 |
 Did you know that if you were a registered user you could add this article to your clipped articles folder?
|
