A longer school year
President Obama recently expressed his view that American school children should spend more time in school. I'd like to make two comments about this matter.
1) Obama is probably right. Right now, the average American grade school student spends about seven hours a day, five days a week, 36 weeks a year in school. That gives sixteen weeks of vacation, about twelve of that in the summer.
I don't believe an extended summer vacation is particularly beneficial to students. School exists to prepare students for the adult world, and I'm quite certain that most of us don't take three months off in the summer. Further, there's the question of how much that break costs the students. I still remember the moment in elementary school when I realized we'd been back in school for three weeks and were still reviewing the stuff we'd supposedly learned the previous year. The break was eating even more time that we were supposed to be learning new things.
If the school year was increased from 36 weeks to 46, students would only need to be in school five and a half hours each day to reach the same number of classroom hours, and there would be far less time wasted on review. If the school day was left at seven hours, students would have the same number of in-class hours in only nine and a half years instead of twelve, not even accounting for the time gained by avoiding lengthy reviews after a three month break.
Then there are the less quantifiable advantages. Students in school year round could develop stronger relationships with their teachers. Their focus on schooling would increase dramatically. Children could begin to see learning as something to be done at all times, not just in the nine months between summer vacations. Imagine how much more our children could learn, and how much better prepared they could be for the world. There are no guarantees, but there are also few disadvantages, and the potential for improving our educational system is staggering.
But that brings me to my second point.
2) Why is the President of the United States the one proposing this? This is a simple idea. I know for a certainty that it's occurred to many people over the years. It's a good idea. So why does it take the President mentioning it before it merits serious discussion? Parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, local governments, state governments, someone whose job description actually involves education in some way, should have pushed this forward long ago.
For that matter, maybe this will work in some communities and not others. Any implication that the federal government should be involved in making a decision like this for the entire country is utterly contrary to both the Constitution and common sense.
We're Americans. We shouldn't need a push from Washington to do things like this. If there's an opportunity to do something good in our community, we should simply do it.
That's one reason I'm running for Congress. I'm tired of waiting for someone else to make things better. I'm going to make things better. Do the same.
1) Obama is probably right. Right now, the average American grade school student spends about seven hours a day, five days a week, 36 weeks a year in school. That gives sixteen weeks of vacation, about twelve of that in the summer.
I don't believe an extended summer vacation is particularly beneficial to students. School exists to prepare students for the adult world, and I'm quite certain that most of us don't take three months off in the summer. Further, there's the question of how much that break costs the students. I still remember the moment in elementary school when I realized we'd been back in school for three weeks and were still reviewing the stuff we'd supposedly learned the previous year. The break was eating even more time that we were supposed to be learning new things.
If the school year was increased from 36 weeks to 46, students would only need to be in school five and a half hours each day to reach the same number of classroom hours, and there would be far less time wasted on review. If the school day was left at seven hours, students would have the same number of in-class hours in only nine and a half years instead of twelve, not even accounting for the time gained by avoiding lengthy reviews after a three month break.
Then there are the less quantifiable advantages. Students in school year round could develop stronger relationships with their teachers. Their focus on schooling would increase dramatically. Children could begin to see learning as something to be done at all times, not just in the nine months between summer vacations. Imagine how much more our children could learn, and how much better prepared they could be for the world. There are no guarantees, but there are also few disadvantages, and the potential for improving our educational system is staggering.
But that brings me to my second point.
2) Why is the President of the United States the one proposing this? This is a simple idea. I know for a certainty that it's occurred to many people over the years. It's a good idea. So why does it take the President mentioning it before it merits serious discussion? Parents, teachers, administrators, school boards, local governments, state governments, someone whose job description actually involves education in some way, should have pushed this forward long ago.
For that matter, maybe this will work in some communities and not others. Any implication that the federal government should be involved in making a decision like this for the entire country is utterly contrary to both the Constitution and common sense.
We're Americans. We shouldn't need a push from Washington to do things like this. If there's an opportunity to do something good in our community, we should simply do it.
That's one reason I'm running for Congress. I'm tired of waiting for someone else to make things better. I'm going to make things better. Do the same.
posted by Stephen Collings at
10:23 AM
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