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As Americans, we're just so used to kids having summers off, that the idea President Obama put forth last week— that American children should go to school longer, either stay later in the day or into the summer —at first really put a lot of people off.
"I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas, not with Malia and Sasha," the President acknowledged jokingly.
Even moms here on CM are discussing the longer school year issue.
forsythia_18 says that she loved going to an all-year round school. "We still had a summer break and throughout the year we had long, almost three week breaks. It was great! I think people should give it a chance because I think they would end up loving it," she says.
Regardless of how we view this as individuals--many parents are not comfortable with the idea--Obama raises the specter of year long school for a serious reason. Our children are performing at lower and lower levels--and are often outperformed by many other countries in certain subjects.
"Despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us," Obama said. "In eighth-grade math, we've fallen to ninth place. Singapore's middle-schoolers outperform ours 3-to-1. Just a third of our 13- and 14-year-olds can read as well as they should."
Where do you stand? Are you in favor of longer school days/years? Against it? Or still thinking it through?
Comments (48)
From what I hear, the days will be 1 hour longer and the kids will only go 4 days a week instead of 5. I for one am all for year round school. Kids go 3 weeks and have a week off, still get Christmas and Spring break and have the month of July off. Kids tend to retain more of what they learned.
I think that year round school is a great idea. They will get breaks, so it's not like they'll completely burn out. And like tyfry7496 said, they will retain more. Kids lose so much of what they have learned over the long summer break!
No. They waste far too much time at school as it is. They don't need to take my children away from me for more hours of the day (or days of the year). Besides, teachers' pay won't be raised enough to compensate for the extended time, and if summer breaks are shortened, teachers will be hard-pressed to take the continuing education classes that they are required to take, which means more substitute teachers in the classroom rather than the actual teacher. I say take the junk out of the curriculum. Track the kids according to their learning abilities and/or learning styles. Give the teachers smaller classes, which will mean hiring more teachers. And make the kids accountable for their learning. Time isn't the problem here.
The reason our children are doing worse in school is because they keep dumbing down the "education". I had exceptional grades in school, but I didn't learn hardly anything. They don't teach kids anything worthwhile these days. They just feed them federal garbage.
I'll be homeschooling, so it doesn't matter in regard to my kids, but I feel bad for the parents that are or will be sending their children to public schools...especially with something like this. The last thing they need is more time in school...all it is is a chance for them to absorb more lies and it's more for the parents to have to work to correct at home...should they be doing their job and instilling their values in their children instead of letting the government do it for them.
Longer school day, NO. The attention span of a child is already being run amuck, plus, FAMILIES NEED TIME TOGETHER! A longer school year would not be so bad, but they need to make good use of that time.
I'm for year round school!!! YAY!!! HELP US CATCH UP TO THE REST OF THE WORLD OBAMA!!!
Throwing money at a problem that isn't a fnacial problem, and longer school day/year is just another way to spend more on a failing system.
Expecting more of students, making it okay to fail and need to repeat (not worrying quite so much about their self esteem) THAT will go a long way.
School choice in the form of vouchers, makeing schools more competivite would also help...
I am in definetly in favor of longer days and/or all year for the kids. It seems as thought that some of the time off that the schools schedule are ridiculous. Ya for sure, we need to keep up with the jones on this issue!!
I like year round school. My oldest went to one for her kinder and 1st grade. She still had breaks but they were shorter in length but more frequent. There was less time for her to loose skills and less "I'm bored" time.
I don't think longer days are a good idea, at least in the upper grades. Kids have tons of homework and they need some kid time too.
I'm in favor of a year round school calender. I would also like to see more than the 180 instruction days that my state has. As for making the school day longer that I disapprove of because kid need times with the family. The school is not there to raise the kids they are there to educate them. I also think with the cost of day care kids in school year round would be better for working parents.