Recently Searchwarp writer
Sandra Graham asked the community what their thoughts were on President Obama's plan on increasing school days and year in an effort to be "more competitive internationally."
Since I tend to have more opinions than Rush Limbaugh, I thought I would write an article on my views as opposed to a very long, long, long comment.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
His contention is that our school calendar is based upon an economy that no longer exists and that our kids do not spend as many days in school. While that is true on the days, Fox news reports that US kids spend more hours 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)."
His other reasons involve parents not being home for kids when they get home. He also brings forth research that shows kids lose knowledge during the summer months.
Now that we know Obama's thoughts, I would like to explain why I am so against this plan. Kids are already doing so much more then we were at their age. Do we really want to have them in counseling for overworking at the age of eight.
This plan will also do away with electives and learning activities that come outside of school.
For example, let me give you an example of my own son's third grade schedule. His normal school hours are 8:40 a.m. to 3:40 p.m.
On Mondays and Wednesday, he gets to school at 7:45 for choir. On Tuesdays, he gets to school at 8 for UIL competition spelling and stays at school from 4 to 5 for UIL Destination Imagination club then rushes to soccer practice from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. On Thursday and Fridays he gets to school at 7:30 a.m. for chess club. On Thursdays, he has soccer again until 6:30. He also has to complete 100 minutes of reading a week for homework, thirty minutes of math homework a night along with spelling and writing homework.
Before the year started, I had a conversation with one of the teachers that organizes the clubs. She admitted that she was having a hard time finding teachers to sponsor because they had to make sure their own families were taken care of and couldn't make it there that early.
If the day goes to dinner time, my son will not get to participate in extra-curriculars. It will be impossible. Extra-curriculars has taught him more then any classroom learning. They teach social skills like teamwork, cooperation, compromise, competition, etc. Unfortunately during the day, many kids spend the day in silence while the teacher is teaching. away from socializing with peers.
I understand that Obama feels it puts too much pressure on parents to pay for childcare. I believe that is a choice. All parents make that decision. There are several fields that parents can go into that provides them being home. One parent can also stay home. You make sacrifices when your kids are young, because you have your whole life to make money. With technology today, there should not be an issue of kids being home without parents.
There are also so many camp programs, education programs, low income programs that offer kids further opportunities. Grade levels also do not have to be dropped over the summer. Send home summer homework or pamphlets for the kids, but don't take summer away. Libraries and museums offer free programs to further education over the summer months.
Families are already worked and stressed to the hills. Why take away their opportunities for family vacations? Think of the tourism industry, itself, and how it would be effected. Kids are in school way too much as it is for families to be close.
One time we did the math and realized our son spends more waking hours with his friends at school than with us. Why would our society approve of increasing that time?
I think the future effects would have more upperclass families pulling their kids out of public school and putting them in private schools as well as more families turning to homeschooling.
Every article I have read so far has told about the unpopularity with kids. I just wanted to make sure that I voiced that as a parent, this plan is unpopular with me.
Childhood is so short and precious and as a parent, I want to spend as much time as I can with my child. I am sure my children's teachers feel the same way about their own children.
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