Sep
2009
President Obama Looking To Extend School Hours
President Obama has begun talking about the possibility of extending the school day, and while I think he is on the right track, he is coming at it from the wrong angle.
According to a story for the Associated Press (sorry, can’t link it or quote it due to their insane rules on bloggers owing them money if we do so), President Obama is currently looking at extending the school day by three hours, and also increasing the number of days per year that students go to school. This is said to be combat the continually low scores that American students have in comparison to countries such as Japan.
In comparison, USA students attend school an average of 1,146 hours, while students in Japan attend 1,005, but I am going to concentrate on why this is a bogus number and the Japanese actually attend more hours than that. The students OFFICIALLY attend 1,005 hours, what is not counted is their “extra curricular” hours which are “elective”, but you would be hard pressed to find any student who does not attend them. They are also quite often going in to school on Saturdays and Sundays, again this is “optional”, but due to the pressure of their peers doing it, so they know if they don’t follow suit that they will fall behind.
So is extending the hours of the day the solution? No, I don’t think so. From the sounds of it, it almost sounds like Obama envisions this partially as a babysitting service as he sees keeping the students in school until 6 or 7 PM. You are talking about children who are not used to such long hours, and you are also going to have a major cut down in the amount of time they have each night to do homework. Extending the hours per day is not the best choice.
He also has discussed the possibility of cutting the summer vacation time down, and while I have problems with extending the number of hours per day, I have no problem with changing up the structure of the entire year. The current model of nine months on, three months off is based on the agrarian calendar of farming, but children are no longer spending the summer working in the fields with their parents, so needing the block of time off is no longer required.
A school year model that has shown some definite success is a quarter system where students attend school for 9 weeks and then have 3 weeks off. Students attend the same number of hours per day, but with less down time between sessions, the students don’t forget as much, and take less time to get back up to speed when they do get back.
Of course, all of these plans ignore the problems inherit in our public school systems and the subject matters they teach our kids, but that is another argument for another day, but I do agree with the President that a change needs to be made in how the kids attend school. While I have already seen some blogs such as Sweetness & Light decrying this as a way to brainwash children into being liberal leaning, Obama lovers, there have been schools playing with the structure of the school day and year for quite a while now. I knew a child attending a 9 on/3 off school 12 years ago in St. Louis, and yes his grades did go up from when he attended in the 9 months on/3 months off school.
In a study conducted in 2006, students in the United States placed 17th amongst 30 countries compared in how their students were doing. I am sure no one will ever think this is a desirable place to be for this country, and while I feel there is a lot that needs fixing in our system (psst, school uniforms), a change to the school year is inevitable at some point. Be it under Obama or whomever follows him into the Oval Office, this is a subject that will need to be addressed at some point along with the manner and matter of what we are teaching the students in school.
… or do you really know that many kids still working in the fields each summer?
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Jolene | September 28th, 2009 at 10:56 am #
I do not agree with Sweetness & Light on this, and you now I feel about the whole administration. BUT what hits me smack in the face is the hypocracy of it all. He signed a bill that stopped the voucher program in DC for lower income students to be able to attend better schools. So all this wanting to help students get better grades goes out the window when you go back to that bill signing.
Luis | September 29th, 2009 at 3:37 am #
In the past, Japanese school attendance was higher due to cram schools, but I haven't heard too much about them as of late–massive studying has become a bit passe in Japan, with most schools having cut Saturday classes. But many students probably do attend juku (cram schools).
Kcabral | September 29th, 2009 at 11:02 am #
I work in a school district- Teachers scramble constantly to adhere to laws and raise the quality of education through a strict and standard based curriculum. It seems to me the tools are in place for the performance the world expects.
The problem begins withthe motivation of the students themselves. Also, all parents are not supportive of their children's education due to many reasons I will not get into here. Maybe if parents werre held more accountable for their children's education, that would help.
Lastly, the pay of teachers and staff is a joke. We work hard and have the children's best interests at heart, sometimes using their own funds for educational lessons. Most teachers just want to motivate children to WANT to learn. If they WANT to learn, and have support at home, TEST SSCORES WILL RISE AND PERFORMANCE AS WELL. There is NO NEED to extend school hours.
topito | September 29th, 2009 at 9:09 pm #
Obma es un topo!… he shouldnt extend the school hours. Theres no need for that! people at my school are thinking to drop out if he extends the hours! TOPOLITO TODOS SE VAN ASER DITCH! Y NO NOS IMPORTA SI REPROVAMOS! BYE TOPOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no one | October 1st, 2009 at 4:36 pm #
its 2 onths thank you very much. cutting it again doesn't fit into my agenda
no one | October 1st, 2009 at 4:37 pm #
2 months. sorry.
whitney | October 7th, 2009 at 8:11 am #
I think that attending school hours is bogus. Why would we want to do that. If we do this i wont have any time to do sports or anything. and by the end of the day i will be so tired. And some of us kids have to work and have things going on in our lives. Tax payers would be paying for this crap. This is ridiculous.
unknown | November 8th, 2009 at 9:52 pm #
that bitch better not change the school hours
unknown | December 14th, 2009 at 12:28 am #
about half of my grade hates oboma!! and i dont like him either…. he cant change school hours! everybody knows if u accually have a good relashionship with your family hes gonna take that all away just to learn fractions, decmials, cemicals, writing, reading, pioneers, the history of your state, friendship, bullying, and a lot more its not right one little bit! :(
keenan | January 16th, 2010 at 12:34 am #
yeah if this happened this would affect the time spending with family and with other activities out of school plus cutting our summer in half or even more would have me looking forward to crappy small breaks
amanda | January 31st, 2010 at 7:45 pm #
you need to shut up with your stupid ass yout just sound so dumb your prolli not even a fucking teacher you fag!