http://www.eduskeptic.com/2009/01/agraian-calendar-no-its-not-hasnt-been-either/ Educational Skepticism Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:26:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.eduskeptic.com/2009/01/agraian-calendar-no-its-not-hasnt-been-either/comment-page-1/#comment-5919 5 Reasons We Need More School Days | LocalSchoolDirectory.com Blog Sat, 29 Jan 2011 03:18:42 +0000 http://www.eduskeptic.com/?p=45#comment-5919 [...] no longer follow an agrarian, or farming calendar.  Back in the day, students needed to be off in summer to help out on the farm.  Most U.S. [...] [...] no longer follow an agrarian, or farming calendar.  Back in the day, students needed to be off in summer to help out on the farm.  Most U.S. [...]

]]> http://www.eduskeptic.com/2009/01/agraian-calendar-no-its-not-hasnt-been-either/comment-page-1/#comment-1735 Bill Fischel Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:45:04 +0000 http://www.eduskeptic.com/?p=45#comment-1735 This story is almost right. Farmers did indeed send their kids to school in summer and winter in the nineteenth century. The "agrarian calendar" was not the current calendar of fall-winter-spring. But the reasons suggested for it here are probably not the most important. Kenneth Gold shows that cities in the late 19th century had school in the summer. Nobody had AC back then, so going to school or working in a hot factory was not a big deal. The real reason for the Sept to June calendar is the widespread adoption of age-graded schooling. Rural schools of the 19th century did not have age-specific grades, and so they could have a "term" of school whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted. But age-grading required coordination among different schools. You had to start and stop at the same time so the third graders could start fourth grade together with those from other schools. I make a big deal of this in chapter 4 of my new book, Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of School Districts (Chicago 2009). Age-grading was a remarkable (and problematical) invention that is so logical to us now that we misunderstand the schools of the nineteenth century that did not have it. This story is almost right. Farmers did indeed send their kids to school in summer and winter in the nineteenth century. The “agrarian calendar” was not the current calendar of fall-winter-spring. But the reasons suggested for it here are probably not the most important. Kenneth Gold shows that cities in the late 19th century had school in the summer. Nobody had AC back then, so going to school or working in a hot factory was not a big deal. The real reason for the Sept to June calendar is the widespread adoption of age-graded schooling. Rural schools of the 19th century did not have age-specific grades, and so they could have a “term” of school whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted. But age-grading required coordination among different schools. You had to start and stop at the same time so the third graders could start fourth grade together with those from other schools. I make a big deal of this in chapter 4 of my new book, Making the Grade: The Economic Evolution of School Districts (Chicago 2009). Age-grading was a remarkable (and problematical) invention that is so logical to us now that we misunderstand the schools of the nineteenth century that did not have it.

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