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The issue specific to the US is time and class sizes. For time, US teachers will only spend 6~7 hours of their day with kiddos. So using up to two hours of that

The issue specific to the US is time and class sizes. For time, US teachers will only spend 6~7 hours of their day with kiddos. So using up to two hours of that for lunch eats into a huge chunk of the short day (some of which is already more recess!). And for class size, our schools are huge! Our gradeschool cafeteria sits hundreds of kids, but it's already not big enough for even a third of the school population. We just don't even have enough room or staff for long lunches. But more addressed at the blogger: I think it's okay that different cultures have different rhythms. Our grade school let kids take the whole break if they wanted to to eat, but an entire room full of kids cooped up inside after a meal instead of getting outside to play would be a disaster.

consp 3y ago
> And for class size, our schools are huge! That's not a sole US thing. We have schools of hundreds to in the thousand here as well. Then again they build new buildings if the school grows too big (usually, not always). Usually the kids used go home for lunch and it was an hour (easily done if you live withing 15min walking from the school). These days you also have schools with shorter lunches and shorter schooldays probably due to more parents both working (kids stay at school then). Lunches are staggered in that case, to not have everyone inside/outside all at once.
em500 3y ago
> For time, US teachers will only spend 6~7 hours of their day with kiddos. So using up to two hours of that for lunch eats into a huge chunk of the short day (some of which is already more recess!). By what norm is this a short day? Here in the Netherlands, standard elementary school hours are 8:30-15:00, minus about 1 to 1.5 hours of lunch+breaks, with Wednesday only 8:30-12:30. So on average barely 5hr/day. Anecdotally, schools days in other European countries (DE, FR, UK) are not much longer.
- pepa65 3y ago
  And elementary students in the Netherlands would usually go home for the lunch break, as most schools are walking distance from home. (At least, when I was that age...)
- wil421 3y ago
  I think elementary is 7:45-14:15(2:15pm) with some outside recess time and lunch included. Most likely the have a sports/gym class too. They also have half days on most Wednesday. This is specific to my county in the US.

consp 3y ago

> And for class size, our schools are huge! That's not a sole US thing. We have schools of hundreds to in the thousand here as well. Then again they build new buildings if the school grows too big (usually, not always). Usually the kids used go home for lunch and it was an hour (easily done if you live withing 15min walking from the school). These days you also have schools with shorter lunches and shorter schooldays probably due to more parents both working (kids stay at school then). Lunches are staggered in that case, to not have everyone inside/outside all at once.

em500 3y ago

> For time, US teachers will only spend 6~7 hours of their day with kiddos. So using up to two hours of that for lunch eats into a huge chunk of the short day (some of which is already more recess!). By what norm is this a short day? Here in the Netherlands, standard elementary school hours are 8:30-15:00, minus about 1 to 1.5 hours of lunch+breaks, with Wednesday only 8:30-12:30. So on average barely 5hr/day. Anecdotally, schools days in other European countries (DE, FR, UK) are not much longer.

pepa65 3y ago
And elementary students in the Netherlands would usually go home for the lunch break, as most schools are walking distance from home. (At least, when I was that age...)
wil421 3y ago
I think elementary is 7:45-14:15(2:15pm) with some outside recess time and lunch included. Most likely the have a sports/gym class too. They also have half days on most Wednesday. This is specific to my county in the US.