September 27, 2009
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More School
I was just reading an article that suggested President Obama would like for school days to be longer and for school to extend during the summer for kids going to school.
The thinking is that kids need to go to school for a longer period of time in order to be competitive with other countries. Here is the link: Link
Do you think kids need more time in school?
Comments (159)
If we want our education to be on par with that of other countries, yes.
Personally, as a student, I’d obviously hate to stay in school longer, but it’s probably useful in the long run. (Though, I guess this wouldn’t affect me, since I’m out of the US system… hahaa.)
I’m glad my school years are over.
NO PLEASE NO.
OH GOD NO! I will do high school online, then.
Noooooooooooooooooo. Not at all, thanks.
Sure, who gives a shit about teenagers.
Speaking from the perspective of a high school, I think if school days started later, it would make a huge difference in academic performance.
Yeah, and they also need a heavier homework load…
Yeah, sure, why not.
If I was still in high school I would say no. But now that I’m out…if that’s what it takes, then yes.
Oh, please. NO!
@Drakonskyr - lmao!
If it is to help and they see it is helpin’ in other places..maybe it would with our students here.
No, no, no. Kids and teenagers are already stressed enough. We don’t need the extra workload, what with band, homework, and social lives. Kids are falling behind enough as it is. They should NOT make the days longer.
more time in school means less time in the streets?
Absolutely. In Asian countries, most of them go to school year round. It’s no wonder why they’re ahead of us in academics.
They don’t need more time, just better use of the time they have. Other countries do a better job of helping students find their vocation. Our kids tend to flounder for years and still not really know what they want to do after they’ve graduated college.
He makes a good point. Other countries beat us educationally on many levels. However, it may not be right for our culture.
Going to school year round is not a bad idea though. Christmas break and Spring break would just be longer.
I think that for grammar school and maybe junior high it could be a decent idea. But definitely NOT for high school level. I couldn’t imagine how stressed out I would have been in high school had the school day/year been longer. I never thought I would get through it as is.
Absolutely.
NO
another dumbass idea by a dumbass president.
Fuck Obama. That just goes to show he doesn’t like American and want’s to change it, and make it be like where he was born.
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
I think kids need more PRODUCTIVE time in school. Study halls are a joke thats what homework is for, I started homeschooling in 7th grade and completed my highschool courses in two years instead of five. I think we need more general courses that teach leadership and people skills so kids are not only learning what they need to navigate but how to do it! I also wish schools would teach kids how to fail, if you know how to fail well, you succeed faster, its proven. I think alot of kids fail, don’t know how to deal with it and give up …who knows.
lol, I finally beat you to a post. Not that I was ever trying. But, I posted that I thought it would be a good idea, mainly for selfish reasons on behalf of myself – that for working parents it would be a good idea. I can see why it might not be a good idea on some levels though, like for kids that are involved in sports; going to school longer in the day would just make it harder for them to accomplish everything while still maintaining some sort of social life/family life.
No, I think we’re in school plenty long, we just don’t use the time as we should.
FUCK NO!
There is too much wasted time in school days already and until we start using that more effectively there is no reason to extend anything.
Furthermore, our system is primarily based on rote memorization which is frankly not education. We don’t learn how to do math or how it is useful for example, we just learn what some answers are and how to punch keys in a fucking calculator.
i dont think it should be longer as opposed to more “enriched”
I was fortunate enuff to go to a high school where we were offered archery, horseback riding, fishing, golfing, bowling, swimming etc for gym… I feel really bad for my friends who went to poorer funded schools. it’s not necessarily always the “academic” side of things that will enhance someones intelligence. Extra curricular activities is key!
…hell no.
There’s A LOTTTTT that needs to be changed about American schooling, not just making the day longer and extending into the summer.
If this is what the citizens wanted, there would be a triving industry of private summer-schools. Notice that there isn’t. Obama can’t in good faith believe that he is representing the will of the people with this one.
Geez…back in highschool, we had four classes each day (we had a total of 8 classes) and they were about 1hr 20 minutes. Its brutal, but its helping me get through my lecture classes with ease.
We grow tired and antsy by the closer it gets to school being over. It maybe after eating lunch or you didn’t get enough sleep. Whatever it may be, if we had those days where we had to have extended time for whatever reason, the students get real antsy.
Where would extra curricular activities fit? Where would sports fit? I’m mad about that too! Physical education must stay in the program. How much time will the average student do homework and how much sleep?
Summer isn’t really that long either. 2 months fly by really quick. Kids need that play time.
Extended school hours doesn’t change the quality of education. There are things, course-wise, that can be done to improve education. Repetition does not equal “learning”. And when the education system only looks at scores and not what’s actually being learned, there is a problem. Then, we also must consider the information, or lack there-of, being passed on. First thing is getting rid of multiple choice questions. It takes no skill at all to guess, and when I was in school, we were given tips at how to make the “best” guess. Grading curves should be made illegal. It gives people a false impression of a student’s capabilities. Practical examinations are a must in some instances. And I highly value the power of the essay. Then, when all of this is corrected, if they want to extend school hours, then by all means, do so. However, extended the hours now will only make the education that much worse. Though I don’t disagree that education is important, kids will be forced to do loads of overtime, as well as homework. When, then, are they allowed to simply enjoy life? Are we really willing to take away more of the child’s life just so they can compete in a global economy?
Kids need more time in learning situations, not in desks. Homeschoolers are far above public schoolers academically (and they save the government billions of dollars), but I don’t see Obama touting them.
I’ve been homeschooled my entire school life and the only time I ever used a textbook was for math and science. Yet on the annual standardized achievement test I always scored in the top 99th percentile.
I never touched an English textbook, but I know grammar and simply shake my head at the lack of vocabulary of the public schooled kids around me. I rarely do school after lunch, but I learn all the time. Whether it’s stewarding at a dog show or spending the weekend competing in a speech and debate tournament, I really learned much more away from the desks and textbooks than at them.
The public school system needs an overhaul, but adding more hours is not the solution.
Longer school periods? I dont know. It doesnt sound horrible. I think I would like it better if, instead of going to school by area, it was like college where you had to apply to get in.
At the risk of sounding like a total weeaboo: I like the Japanese system. You need to apply and then take a test to get into public schools. The better the school the harder it is to get in (gpa/schooling wise) and the more students want to get in. I think it helps to keep the competition between schools to hire only the best teachers therefore giving students the best they can offer. And of course, making sure students not only keep their GPA’s up but continue to do well in their studies so they can do as well in their entrance exams.
If you have horrible teachers then longer study periods isnt going to help. Adding an hour to classes just means an hour more of a teacher who cant teach. However keeping schools in competition ensures that only the best teachers are brought in to teach students, and I think that would make the difference.
Seems cosmetic.
Things like student-teacher ratio and teacher-load are more relevent to academic success.
@ANTN - Now that is an awesome school. Being homeschooled, my “gym” is similar. Except usually the horseback riding and ice skating take place on the weekends.
All that would accomplish is the production of angrier teenagers.
I’ve never been in these other countries. I do not know if their longer time in school and success is really what we need here. I agree that spending more time in school may make us more competitive and all of that…
I just cannot help but wonder if we really need it.
I think kids/parents should have the option of having a summer break, or going to school all year long. I have a friend who attended a charter high school that was year-round, and she did pretty well. It never seemed like school went on forever for her; their breaks are different than the 9-month schools.
But some students need a break, in my opinion. I can see making the school days a little longer – they did that frequently in my elementary school. But as much as I value education, I don’t think year-round school should be mandatory.
@BebstersBlog2 - That sounds like a good idea. Schools do enough visual teaching and reading teaching, but not nearly enough hands-on teaching from my experiences in attending school. And, when kids ask “What will I use this for?” the teachers can demonstrate and show them via field trips, experiments, etc.
No. I go to a school where each block is 77 mins, way too long for teenagers to maintain focus.
Blocks should be shortened and catered to the attention span of the average student.
Yus. I feels da stoopids from when I sees other peoples do their mouth talkings.
You can tack on all the days you want to a school year that exists, but if the quality of public schools doesn’t improve, it won’t make a bit of difference. Let’s work on getting our kids back to the basics (like making sure they read and understand the Constitution would be a start!) and actually learning, then I’ll consider sending my kids to public school.
@BebstersBlog2 - You have beautifully explained exactly why we will be homeschooling. I wish I’d had a more hands-on learning experience, as I’m sure most kids do. If we did more of that instead of reading from a textbook full of errors, I think students would take more interest in education and put forth more effort. Our drop-out rate would probably decrease greatly. You’re right, the entire system needs to be overhauled.
I say no. Here’s part of what I wrote in my post just now on What I Voted For:
Shortening summers and lengthening school days would discourage
students. As someone who plans to become a teacher when I get things
rectified, it is my belief that there should be an equal balance
between school and friends.
@Manstration - Bingo! And discourage instead of encourage leading to rebelling.
@everlastte - Not a bad suggestion. Interesting to say the least.
Definitely need more competition in schools, kids need more drive to succeed, and there needs to be more challenging material to stimulate children’s brains. My mom is student teaching a 6th grade class right now, and when she brings back home math papers to grade and I look at them, I definitely remember 6th grade being more challenging than the material this class is doing right now.
However, I don’t necessarily think lengthening school days and shortening summer vacations will do that. I think having more summer programs will, though. Kids have more fun in these kind of programs, because during their vacation, it’s something they can look forward to. Over the summer, I mentored 5th graders during a Math and Science summer program, and they were all literally jumping with excitement everyday. They loved it.
Sure, great idea.
We should also make our workers work longer hours to improve the economy.
Well, of course they do. More time to learn how to sing pro-Obama chants of praise.
I never liked that guy…
It usually takes the first two to three months to reteach what they were taught the previous year so yes, a long school year would be good or at least longer days.
I read this earlier and my first thought was; “Finally, someone sees things my way”.
Er, no… :[
It’s all about the quality of time spent, not necessarily the amount.
If it affects college, then damnit no! lol. but for seconday and lower education, yes. We’re kinda slow compared to others don’t ya think? Hmm, I think it would be better for the American school systme to adopt the japanese school system. Idk why, but it seems pretty effective.
More militerry. Less Skools.
@BebstersBlog2 - haha i have many home schooled friends too!! u guys do the craziest sickest “field trips”!!!! I tagged along on one of my friends field trip on a boat ride along the erie canal! lol
NO. WRONG.
ughhh wait until i’m out of school at least!
Probably because I’m a student, but I definitely think not.
Honestly, maybe its just me, but the ‘ideal’ american student is supposed to be a good athlete, good grades, taking AP courses, being involved in good extracurriculars, have a good social life, have a good job, be headed to a good college, do all their homework, and get at least 9.5 hours of sleep. I could be wrong, but I’ve always had the impression that the top countries focus solely on education, and not all the other stuff we american students are expected to do in school.
@xAnotherxCasexOfxTeenxAngst - I don’t think it would, because say school starts at 9:00 as opposed to 7:30. School gets out at perhaps about 4, 415 ish. That means sports and extracurriculars get out at maybe 6, sometimes later for varsity sports. Then homework. Essentially, everyone would be getting the same amount of sleep as the kids starting school at 7:30 because if they go to school later, they’ll have to go to bed later. Thats just from my perspective though.
Hell no! My kids are gone TEN hours a day as it is! If they pass this, I’m pulling them out and home schooling. I may do that anyway.
I’m a fan. I like school. Maybe people will come to college, and actually know how to write.
Yes, but it’s not so much extending the school days. They should look into modifying the curricula.
You can make the periods as long as you want, but if the motivation to learn isn’t there, it isn’t there. Education needs to be more hands on as a previous comment said.
Should they extend the hours? Sure, if it shows some sort of improvement after a certain amount of time.
But
I think the bigger issue here is American society in general. Half of the population is, I’m sorry, retarded. We live in this bubble now, where our attention span has decreased severly and everything we don’t agree with must be destroyed.
The Obama speech to kids for example. This was a perfect opportunity to promote critical thinking within a student’s mind… an opporutinity to listen and make a decision based off of the information. To ask oneself “WHY don’t I agree with this?” and come up with a logic based argument to counter.
Instead we got a “I don’t agree with this, so I’ll just shut it out entirely as if it never existed.” How do we move forward from that type of mentality?
It’s childish.
since children can only be as intelligent as their parents it is very hard to say the schools are what need fixing now. they needed fixing quite some time ago and there are far too many who’ve been pushed through the system without merit and it is this practice that has dumbed down society as a whole. what the actual source of this problem is is buried under many years of muddled habits being accepted. educational success comes from a motivational factor whether it’s from home or an alternative source and without this level of motivation it is not likely a child will succeed. the child needs to find it and sometimes they get a guide from a school but there needs to be more there.
As a senior in high school (who probably wouldn’t get affected by this if it ever does become law or something) I gotta say it’s ridiculous. I’m 3rd in rank in a class of 770 students (largest in my state) and probably the most well-rounded in the top 5. If you want a well-rounded student, you CANNOT follow foreign countries. Last year, we were made to watch a movie called 2 Million Minutes I believe, and it focused on 3 different areas of the world: China, India, and the U.S. While Chinese and Indian students seemed to be much more dedicated to math and science, the American students were portrayed as essentially lucky and lazy. That’s not true! I have 3 to 5 hours of homework per night. I do 1 to 4 hours of extra curriculars daily. I have colleges to visit, family to spend time with, and am incapable of keeping up with a single tv show because I simply do not have time. What we need is dedication to learning, not more time dazing off in classes. We need kids to value their education, and by adding more time kids will either become only more frustrated or less attentive.
Absolutely. School should be all year round and after school services (sort of like combining schools with YMCA’s) available as well…
Oh yeah, more time in school, definitely. Keep the little bastards off the streets.
Yes.
Better teachers, more productivity, more direction from parents. I spent all of my education in private schools, except for 7 and 8th grade. Those two years I repeated everything I learned in 5th grade private school, even in the public “Honors program”. Public schools are lagging badly.
NO.
I sure hope they give a couple more decent length breaks if school is going to extend into the summer. Otherwise the kids’ll burn out.
no.
we need better teachers.
The workload for most students is already immense, I don’t think more time in school is really necessary. Those who have the ambition to learn will learn all they need to and more, while those who don’t won’t learn no matter how long you force them to sit in a classroom. Seriously adults are always telling me it’s ridiculous how much schoolwork kids have these days compared to how much they used to have. And it’s stressful for students to have this much work piled on them all school year as it is. I think adding more school will just increase the stress on students which can result in physical and mental health issues. In my opinion, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
We need a better education system actually. Like allowing students to learn at their own pace or shortening the amount of time spent in school (like a system similar to England’s). Or either getting rid of these standardized tests that are mandatory or at least approaching them differently. Too many schools are putting the focus on how to do well on the tests and guessing what will be on the tests instead of just teaching us what we should know according to state standards (which teachers already have access to) and making sure that we understand the concepts. That’s really how you do well on tests (assuming that you’re not someone who is just terrible at taking tests in general). But I digress.
The idea of moving school into the summer sounds reasonable. Many schools already do that (although most people don’t actually understand what year round school actually entails); you still get breaks (in fact you get more breaks throughout the year), but the breaks are shorter, so you lose less information. It would really help out teachers if they didn’t have to review the entire last year’s lessons in the first few weeks of school.
I don’t think that the school day needs to be lengthened seeing as how attention spans tend to go down toward the end of the day; we’ll just be prolonging the period of students not paying attention. I do, however, support pushing the school hours back. Many students do learn better in later classes simply because they’re not still half asleep. The later you have to get up, generally the better sleep you get because your body can spend more time in deep sleep modes.
Yes, but maybe like they do in several schools where there is no summer break; they just have a few months of school, then a month or so off, and so on. Continuous with breaks.
More important would be abolishing zoning laws that give schools a monopoly over their district.
Maybe so. I think it would be best if the kids were exposed to as many catagories of knowledge as possible, even theology, before they graduate from highschool. Chrildren are good learners and when they are 3 they are ready to learn. Kids need to find their forte before they start college. They need to start thinking about a career choice at least by the time they are starting their highschool junior year so they can be prepaired to go into a trade school I that’s what they want to do. Highschool can offer a lot of different subjects but unless they are very gifted in an area and accepted in a career apprenticeship or elevated to music school before graduation, for example, they are not ready to be productive citizens before graduation. Too many fall through the cracks and have to rely on welfare while if their God given interest was found early they probably would be in a job they are interested in. If the school day was longer and the school year longer then there could be more subjects taught, including creativity. Creativity can be taught. We have drifted into too much morality in schools IMO. We teach that things are okay and that there is nothing wrong with things. Morality isn’t a classification of knowledge. What we can do is let the parents do something instead of giving up the kids to be wards of the state letting teachers be parents. Teachers can’t possible be a parent to 20 students for a few hours a day. We need to use the cognative and affective domains and include the questions: “How do you feel about this?, and “Do you think this is good or bad?”, when it comes to interpersonal relationships, their own work and the work of others. As beginning students they need to develop their psychomotor abilities. We need to start with reading, writing, math and creativity and forget if these are good or bad and how a student feels about science, for example. Forget teacher testing. Test the students. If they fail then the teacher fails. If a college student can graduate with a teaching certificate then they are ready. Forget the social acceptance status of teachers as equals with doctors. Teachers should just stick with the truth and hope their students will do the same.
Yes, I think it is better to have a program that is somewhat longer. I don’t think it needs to be year-round, but it should be longer to be comparable and competitive with other developed countries.
@elis3xx - What I’ve noticed with my school is, no matter what time school ends, it still helps a lot to have school start later, even if we go to sleep later. We have delayed hours during standardized testing and I’ve noticed a lot of us focus better when school starts at 9. Maybe it’s just my neck of the woods, though.
It should be decided on a community basis, not a national basis. Some schools might benefit from this, others might not.
It isn’t necessary to do this in order to be competitive with other countries, however, because the information learned in elementary-high school is so small and the teaching rate is so slow compared to what you get in college. I have lots of examples of this. A single semester of college-level spanish can equal as much as two years of high school Spanish. I have a friend who teaches math to adults who never got past subtraction when they were kids, and he teaches them everything up through algebra in eight to twelve weeks. Or ask a student to take the SAT after completing one year of college, and they will do significantly better than they did in high school.
Furthermore, most of what we learn in high school or college is not likely to be applicable to our careers. The purpose of college isn’t to cram every last fact into our heads, it’s to teach us how to learn. Once you get in the real world, and you are actually competing against Japanese engineers, you’re not going to have some teacher telling you where to find things and pointing out mistakes that you make: you have to be able to figure things out for yourself and have confidence in your decisions. The purpose of the US college system is to make independent, capable thinkers who can solve problems. For the most part it does well at that.
no thanks!!!!!!
I think year round school would be beneficial, but I don’t think making the days longer will do any good. And I agree with some of the other posters that starting school a little later (maybe 9am) would really go a long way to helping productivity…studies have shown that teenagers need more sleep than they’re getting. Of course…this might just give them an excuse to stay up later, thus defeating the purpose.
It depends on which kids you’re talking about. I think the time spent in school doesn’t matter as much as the quality of education. In developed countries, I think education should be more adaptable to suit individual learning styles. Maybe college is a waste of time for some people. I don’t know about kids in developing countries.
I think the school year should be longer, perhaps with multiple shorter breaks to replace the overlong summer break. Too much is forgotten over the summer.
As for substantially longer hours, I question the value of that. I think the current hours should, instead, be better used. Prove that the school policies are effective, and I will reconsider. But the answer to our school problems is not always ‘more of the same’.
I think kids need parents who give a damn about them as well as that they have and utilize an education. Education begins inthe home, is assisted from outside, but ultimitely continues from birth on from THE HOME.
I think we need a better system first, the extend the system.
Nope. Better teachers, more responsibility, yes. Longer school hours? No way.
@ANTN - When I was a kid we would go to this amazing science museum in Charlotte, NC, on school days for a field trip. It was a kid’s dream.
There was a big rainforest room with iguanas, all kinds of birds, and snakes. And a room with tons of water stuff to play in. And a demonstration where they made ice cream with dry ice and gave out samples. Plus an omnimax theater. And a HUGE playground thing and this chair you could ride on that went 20-30 feet in the air.
Hehe, sorry, but I had some good memories there. Ooo and moving dinosaurs!
yep! good plan.
no. let them be the new generation of mcdonalds, wal mart, and starbucks workers.
@Eternalimplosion - Agreed.
Maybe if parents took responsibility for their kids so discipline handed out by the school was continued at home then we would make better use of our time in school.
Perhaps not elementary school, but I would say that students intending on furthering their education after high school, yes. I think there’s too strong of a focus on sports and other extracurriculars and not enough focus on the actual courses.
as a teacher, i believe it’s not about how much time is spent in school, but more about what is taught and how it’s taught! and let’s be real, there isn’t as big an emphasis on education in america as there is in other countries whose students excel. plus, with our huge population of english learners and social-economic influences, just going to school longer won’t solve the problem.
@iseetheworldinhiseyes19 - I like that anagram
Uhm. NO.
I’m in high school right now. And I already have nearly 7 hours of school a day, practice everyday afterschool, clubs, volunteering, and work. Because that’s what it takes to get into a good college nowadays… I think we’re all already stressed way too much.
Sure, make school days longer… But be sure to expect to see teen suicide rates increase dramatically.
i think i’d prefer another year versus longer school time
(since most students outside our country usually graduate at 18 or over)
It sure couldn’t hurt and it would help a lot of single parents out!
As a student in Hong Kong,
we have lessons from 8:30am to 3:50pm.and then almost every single students have tutorial classes (perhaps even more than 2 or 3) everyday after school,even on saturdays and sundays,
and HKCEES, (the equivalent of GCSES, only tonnes more difficult) are one of the most demanding exams in the world,( if you look at entry requirements for colleges/universities, for other countries youll see ‘average of 80% / minimum how many As or Bs’,but when you scroll to Hong Kong, its like a minimum of five Ds or something like that. )
but i think all the above is BECAUSE the competition is really fierce and our society puts a lot, and i mean, a lot, of emphasis on academics,SO we have longer school hours and after school tutorials,and not vice versa.
so i dont think longer school hours will increase the competitiveness of students in the US,
it will perhaps even backfire,
if the student’s/society’s value of academics doesnt change.
shorter hours per day but more days per year seems like the blue print for a good education
no thanks obama..
Time is not the issue. Quality over quantity. We need to change what we teach our kids, what grades mean, and what it means to have a high school education.
Hell to the fucking no.
Nah. Just shorter breaks. ♥
I don’t live in the U.S. but I would HATE for that to happen in Canada…. unless they changed the time to get to school to later… at least 10:30? XD Then I wouldn’t mind staying late.
actually after reading, max gladwell, the story of success… there are studies where kids who dont get long summer breaks are smarter and more productive. other countries are doing it.
wow. Longer period of studying for kids or teens who go to summer school would really do them good. THUMBS UP
But not all teens are the same. There are some who mature early and those are the ones who will suffer to keep up with the kids or teens who are not the same level in maturity (ex. bullies, kids who use foul languages, gossipers, etc.)
High School can sometimes be dirty so in my opinion, longer period of studying should only be applied to kids attending summer school.
I find the motive quite ironic considering one can teach in other countries with far less education than is required state-side.
Quality of what is taught in school time is more important than quantity.
sure why not
No because when I was in school I wished the school days was shorter somedays because I was bullied.
no
kids need to stop being fat and obese.
kids need to be kids
Yes.
We need mores chool.
Better education, not more of it.
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Yes, I think kids need more time in school. I also agree that there needs to be a better use of their time in school.
yes, but there are a million other issues with more precedence, even within the school system
People do realize that although a lot of countries in Europe go to school more days out of the year, their school days are shorter… right?
If you want America to stop pumping out moron children, yes.
no that will just promote school dropouts, stress, and all the negative things that make children want to be rebellious or commit suicide more. they should really thin about that before children go crazy. WE ARE NOT LAB RATS!!!!!
I think so, haha. I don’t care because I’m not in high school. Plus whenever I have kids they’ll be out of my hair longer! Haha, jk. Well, in reality, like what others are saying, if our country wants to get ahead in the world, we need to be educated longer. Doesn’t Germany have 13 years of school (not counting kindergarten)? I’m just saying…
This is probably the one Obamalamadingdong thing I actually agree with.
Waiting for the drop-out rate to increase for those unmotivated to go to school to begin with.
I recall when I was in school I hated to see school out and looked forward to it beginning again. That’s just me. Perhaps they should extend the school year for those who want to stay in school longer. A large majority of kids get into trouble duing the summer while school is out. Parents working and they run amok. We all know that those with the best education will be the leaders of our country in the future. Obviously a large majority of our graduating seniors now are not the brightest crayons in the box. I think whatever it takes to improve our educational system should be welcomed.
No. I think kids need a balance of play and school. I don’t think that education is the most important part of life. I say this with 3 college degrees and a well-paying job. I say this with experience. Other things are more important. Plus, more school means more money appropriated for schooling, which either means higher taxes or cutting of other government programs – neither of which I am for.
Absolutely. We should demand more of our children. Other countries do.
I would have hated it in high school, but now that I’m in college I wouldn’t mind…
No. How about just making use of the time they have? When I was in high school, a lot of time was wasted. And study halls were there just to save money. I don’t think time is the issue, it is more or less how that time is spent.
HELL NO. If anything, kids need more time outside of school to learn what the real world is like, and not experience it behind a desk…
Well, the article speaks of currently less days with more hours compared to other countries. That’s not very effective.
WE might as well hand him the keys to our souls and call it good.
haha I am just kidding.
I would be for it if the industrial model didn’t prevail. A school is not a factory, it is an institution.
So as the system stands, no. It would accomplish nothing.Also, the vast majority of math teachers grades k-8 need to be replaced with people who can teach math, and explain that 1+1=2 and WHY it equals two.
I think longer days are a bad idea.
hell no! This better not happen. I work my ass of in school. And we kids need our break. Obama could kiss my ass.
No. We need a better education system.
Keep kids in school year round with a 2 week vacation every 3 months… no more teacher “in service” days to rob kids of a school day seemingly every month. Bring back, art, music and other classes dropped so that we can spend all of our resources teaching kids to pass mandated state and federal testing. Let’s actually teach kids to THINK! What do you say?
( Remember, it would also increase the number of hours our teachers worked, they will have to compensated as well.)
who’s going to pay for it?
I think there’s more to it than making the school days and hours longer. I say we should just do whatever it is the Europeans and Asians are doing that makes their school system more efficient than ours. But of course it also depends on how determined the student is to learn and all that good crap
it’s not not so much about the quantity but the quality of the education….
Maybe. But it’s not necessarily the quanitity of education that needs changing, but rather the quality. I think they could use the time they’ve been given already better.
it doesn’t matter how long they make school for. you could have it every day but if the students are not learning efficently, then what would be the point?
As an education professional, I agree partially. I do not agree with longer school days. What needs to happen is we need to shift the focus of our education. All of today’s top careers are science/math and technology related, and that’s what should be emphasized in school, not Social Studies or Arts/Humanities (English, etc.). If we were to shift the focus we’d catch up. Also I’m for shorter summer breaks but more frequent breaks during the school year so not everything is lost over the summer.
While we’re talking education, take a look at my idea for revamping high school mathematics (came up with this idea since I’m a certified high school math teacher).
My school starts at 8 and ends at 3. We start in September and end in may. That is significantly shorter than most public schools, and we don’t need more time. If the schools would just use the time they’re given productively, they wouldn’t need to make the days longer.
It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.
Other countries don’t have “undergraduate” classes that attempt to make you more rounded. You take only the essential classes. Why a med student has to take Intro to Dance and Wine Tasting 101 is beyond me.
There should also be some sort of secret teacher auditing or something, because some teachers really don’t teach during class time.
We would not need to think about extending school if we were to go back to an educational system where students were expected to understand and pass before being moved on to the next grade. When I was a kid, there were kids every year who “flunked” and had to repeat a grade. Make students reach a standard before they are promoted to the next grade and our whole system would function better.
They already hae year-round school in Colorado.
10 hours of the same caliber as the 7 hours they get now will not make any difference. Sometimes 1 hours of effective, case specific learning is more effective than a whole day, even weeks of the broad spectrum kind that we shove onto our kids at government schools now. Quality over quantity.
Kids don’t need more time in school. I don’t need more time in school. Competition’s already bad enough, it produces test anxiety because kids feel the need to make an amazing grade! You know, if we didn’t have any competition like in Greenland, we would all be happy and our suicide rates would be down. Kids wouldn’t have test taking anxiety and I would actually answer more questions because my perfectionism might have been nonexistent.
AHHH NO! but i’m not from USA so it’s okay. :p but i just hate school. recently because of my major exam, i’ve been in school from 730am till 430pm.
I don’t want to go to school longer… perhaps it would make us better academically, but then, the countries that do that base all of their worth on tests and have higher suicide rates. There has to be a balance.
I think our schools should teach relevant information that will be useful in real life; too many teachers tell us what will be on tests, and we spend half the year practicing for statewide exams. It’s ridiculous. School should be about what we LEARN and KNOW, not about test scores.
where are the kids going to get the attention span it takes to go to school that much and still learn something? and where are they getting the money to fund this? my sister’s school just went to four days a week and longer days because they don’t have enough money, now she’s in second grade and when she should be playing or doing homework she’s sleeping because she’s so tired. eight hours a day is to long for younger kids, not to mention what will happen to after school activities? i was in a charter school for four years before moving to another state and to public school and while yes my grades were better and we did go to school more days, i believe i was ahead of the rest of my class when i moved to public school because of the smaller class sizes. in my charter school there could not be more than 25 students per teacher, when i moved to public school i had one class with over 50 people with one teacher. i say more teachers and better pay for them.
Considering that they already go year round here where I live, and I have seen first hand the positive affects of this, I think it is a great idea.
1. I agree with the idea of lengthening winter and spring break and shortening summer break.
That would give kids the rest and relaxation time, but also not have them away from school for so long.
2. The school day should start a little later, and breakfast should be available upon arrival.
3. Study hall is bullshit and should be done away with.
4. Sex education programs need to be completely redone.
5. There should be a class available for seniors that takes them completely through the college process,
From essay writing, filling out applications, scheduling times to visit campuses, maybe even providing transportation if enough kids are interested in the same school. Also, helping out with scheduling and preparing for the ACT and SAT’s.
6. Busy work needs to be lessened, more productive uses of class time.
7. When teachers are being reviewed, they shouldn’t be told when someone is going to come sit in on their class, they should show up at random. Also, students should be able to critique their teachers, obviously these would taken with a grain of salt, but still.
another reason why i want to homeschool. thanks to divorce, i can’t. fucker.
I say it can’t really hurt. It would probably be a good thing. But many people don’t realize it and people will fight it and whine and moan till the end.
I guess we could just give birth in the school nurses office and be done with it.
No.