Obama: Longer school days and school years needed

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/more-school-obama-would-148087.html

I thought this was particularly interesting:

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

Poor PS kiddos. I just don't see how adding more time devoted to more of the same is going to fix anything.

As most of us HS'ers have learned, we can accomplish in two hours daily what a school can't do in six hours plus homework.

If this happens, I wonder how it will affect those of us in states that require homeschoolers to do a certain number of instructional hours per day? Especially with my 2nd grader, it is hard to extend his studies long enough to meet our 4.5 hour daily requirement already. (Thankfully things like reading, PE, recess, home-ec, etc. count!)

 

Amazing! They found that they need more money to run our already inefficient, default education system for more days or longer hours. The problem is not math scores, it is the economics in the classrooms themselves. They simply need to make the classroom time more efficient; more time and more money is NOT the fix.

However, there are quite a few erroneous assumptions, also. For one, the Asian countries they referred to use entirely curricula and have a completely different school systems and rules.

 

To me, it sounds like Big Brother wants to pay less for afterschool and summer daycares.

The real question is, who is lobbying for this?

 

hubby says, how about better management. now off to read the link.

 

This reeks of agenda.

Our local school district instituted a public preschool two years ago. They made no secret of the fact that they eventually want to make it mandatory. They also made no secret of the fact that the reason is (yes, it was said repeatedly by those who designed the program) because they don't want young children attending church-run preschools because they will be indoctrinated.

This sounds like more of the same to me.

Maybe I'm just extra cranky tonight, but that's how it strikes me.

 

To bad that each state accepts federal funds for their schools giving the President of the Unites States any say at all about how the public schools should be ran. (You would just think he has enough to do.)

 

Where's the family unit. It will be the goverment raising the children. The schools already serve breakfast and lunch why not dinner too? Then there are the sports and other afterschool activities. Cannot see this can fly. Something needs to be done now during 'normal' working hours. It came down to one thing that DH and I came up with - sounds like with schools and everything out there the president wants, Socializim(sp).

 

Sadly, too many parents would be thankful to not have to "deal with" their children as much.

 

Longer school days? Fix the public education system first please!

 

Longer school days aren't going to fix poor educations because of the no child left behind rule. More and more children were left behind because instead of getting the help they need in subjects they are held back because it's easier. Most teachers are expected to a class size of 30+ children and then kids don't get one on one time because these teachers (at least in our ps) no longer have teacher's aides. Not even Kindergarten has teacher's aides, instead they rely on parent volunteers to hopefully cover that. Making the day longer does not qualify a better education at all.

 

Absolutely. Dh has had a couple of his employees say they were for year round school so they wouldn't have to pay day care costs in the summer.

 

I would be for a year-round model if it was set up like that of Australia. They basically go for six weeks, then have a three? week break. I think those are the right numbers. My nephews (who are native Aussies) have plenty of time off all year. I think the more regular breaks throughout the year are better than one long break in the Summer (1. where kids can forget everything, 2. where, depending on what part of the country you're in, it's too dang hot to play outside much). So, yes they go year-round, but they certainly don't attend any more than us.

 

I think it is sad that they want longer days. Do you know how hard it is for those to stay inside when it is so nice out? I mean they are kids their natural instinct to play.

I think the class sizes, the limited aides & what has too be accomplished is a lot for everyone in the classroom. The NCB really makes things hard as well & leaves the ones really succeeding behind now... at least that's what I experienced though try as I did you find yourself focusing on those lower.

 

After GA continued to come in something like 48th or 49th in the country, they cut recess for kindergartners. That's when I started looking at homeschooling. Similarly, I posted this story on my FB account, and a friend picked it up on hers and posted that she wasn't particularly "for" homeschooling but she would definitely be doing it if Obama's longer days came to pass - and several of her friends agreed.

 

I personally love homeschooling year round lol. But my concerns with ps year round is this most schools are not equipped for school sessions in the summer. Which includes air conditioning, paying teachers more, providing more meals and the list could go on. Now I know for us the locals of our town pay school taxes whether we homeschool or not. So what would that mean for our tax rates?

 

I hadn't even thought of that. Our local schools don't have air conditioning and our summer highs routinely hit the 100s. And then there's the tax issue. If we can't pay teachers to work 9 months each year, how can we pay them to work 12?!

 

I would be for a year-round model if it was set up like that of Australia. They basically go for six weeks, then have a three? week break.

There is a long 6~8 week break over summer in Australia. More to the point, I believe research found children learn best before lunch. Therefore any afternoon activities should be along the lines of sport, art, craft or manybe music unless you are serious about it. Extending the school day will not enhance academic learning.

 

Ahh, that's why we do our homeschooling before lunch. I thought it was just because I was too worn out after lunch, LOL, but I like a more academically-supportive reason! XD

 

We're in GA and my oldest was in PS kindergarten last year. She is a very easy child with little behavioral problems, but when she would get home from school last year she was miserable. It was almost like she would either shut down or ping off the walls...no inbetween. We were all miserable. The kids in kindergarten had 10-15 minute recess and that's it. Definitely WAY too short for 5 and 6 year olds. They need to run and play not sit inside and be structured all day long. Hope Obama's plan does not come to fruition as there will be many miserable kids out there.

 

The schools that do it year-round really don't have any more DAYS than those that do it for nine months, they're just spaced out differently. There's like a week between each term, and about 6 weeks off in the summer. So teachers aren't paid any more, since they're not really working any more. The advantage (supposedly) is that they retain better, so you don't have to waste as much each fall reviewing.