President Obama has stated that US students are not in school long enough. Currently students are in school for about 6 hours a day and have a 3 month summer break. Obama says this is not enough to keep up with schools in other countries. He would like to extend the school day and shorten the summer break. One article I read said the extended school time would have to have a purpose to make it successful for students. They suggested doing enrichment projects with students during the extended time. They would hope this would help raise test scores.
The tradition schedule we use was based on the fact that students were helping in the family fields during the summer and that usually is no longer the case. Therefore, Obama feels we should be in school more to be more competitive with students from other countries. My personal opinion on the competitiveness of other countries is the comparison is unfair. Countries like China have very high standards for education and many students who do not succeed in school begin their trade earlier in life. The US has become a cultural melting pot in the past decade and that has changed our education system greatly so I don’t think we can make an even comparison with other education systems.
I found another article from Fox News that discusses other negative effects of extending the school year. By shortening the summer it could affect the traveling and summer camp business. The current economy has already hurt the travel and summer camp industry and extending the school year could really damage those industries. Here is something to think about though; should we be worrying about the travel industry and summer camps more than our child’s education?
The same article also discusses the extra expense that would be required from a school district to have longer school days/school year. It would require more bus transportation, more school lunches, higher utility bills, possibly increased teacher pay and air conditioning for certain regions. Can school districts handle this? Are tax payers ready to pay more to accommodate this plan?
To finish I will state my personal thoughts and questions. I understand where Obama is coming from and I often feel like I run out of time with my students and so many students need more instruction but can students handle more? I already feel like my students are exhausted by 2:30pm. We have also all seen how students are when it hits May. Once the nice weather hits they are ready for a break (and so are the teachers). If we had a shortened summer break and added weeks onto the school year would this change our curriculums that we currently use or would we just supplement our own curriculum for the extra time? What would this do to extra-curriculars? I think extra-curriculars are very important for student’s success. A school district in Florida (Miami-Dade) tired something like this and abandoned the extended schedule because they did not see much progress so what does this plan include that will make it more successful than what Miami-Dade tried.
I agree that we need to get our students prepared for their future but is this the right answer?
Why restructure? Does it really do anything?
15 years ago
Great topic, mine was similar to this. I did not touch on the topic of extending the student day though. At times, I do feel that students do not get the proper amount of seat time with all that has to get fit into a school year. With sports, plays, assemblies, final tests, and the first week of school, we are not getting the full 180 days of quality seat time. This may need to be addressed. Summer has traditionally been needed for students helping on the farm and such. May this could be tweaked a little bit. One option may be to have extended 4 day school weeks. This would cut down transportation times and electricity costs. Sporting events could be held more on Fridays and Saturdays to ensure more quality seat time. I do think that we need to do things that will boost our educational performance. My suggestion is too lengthen teacher time for prep, prof. development, and collaboration. My other suggestion was to lower class size to a max of 20 students. I did like the suggestion that if the time is lengthened than it needs to be focused. I also agree that tourism profit should be below the priority of education. Good point.
ReplyDeletePhilip
I did the same blog and my feelings are definitely FOR extended days or even hours. If the legislators are willing to pass this as part of their reform, then they also need to realize the increased budget. About a dozen schools within the nation are already extending their days by three hours as part of an initiative. Three hours might be extreme PER day, but adding hours is needed to stop our nation from being at a disadvantage from other countries. And we are at a disadvantage no matter how you look at it. I don't think we need three complete months off in the summer either.
ReplyDeleteSomething needs to be done or our Generation Zer's will be in trouble.
I'm all for extracurricular activities, but I believe my kids' education comes first.
Trista--Great topic! I would definitely favor an extended school year. I think one must, however, is that the "extra" time is more than simply a study hall or time to "hang out". I like the idea about the enrichments during this extra allotted time--that would be proof of an added-value piece. Today's class schedules are hardly ever ordinary. Kids are gone for this thing and the other things. Then we have a speaker the next day. By lengthening the school day, if nothing else, maybe we could actually see our students for the amount of time that we are supposed to.
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