Word is out. It’s all over the news. And it’s not going away. President Obama is currently trying to introduce a bill to congress that will require all students to attend at the least an extra 300 hours a year in school. That is the equivalent of up to 3 hours extra a day. Some students even go in to school on weekends. This is a great idea, to most. GPA’s could easily improve with all the extra time to take tests and quizzes. The learning spectrum could change. Students could learn twice as much in a week, and teachers could even make a little as well. Tests scores would increase, colleges would fill up, and the U.S. would be back on the competitive side. It’s wonderful.
That is until you take a different perspective. Think of the millions of children, more so in high school, that have after school jobs. Would they be excluded? Those young adults that help make rent payments would have to quit their jobs, or work less, or even work later into the night. It’s a lose lose situation. Work less, make less, work later, and well, I’m sure you can think of all the terrible things that would come with working later. Point is, it’s not a good idea. When I was in school, I also had a part time job. This job was shift work. Meaning I had to be there at 3, and couldn’t leave until 11. With my work’s schedule policy, I would not be able to work half shifts like 5-11 or 4-9. It had to be a whole shift, every day I worked.
I do not believe the president is considering all sides of this new idea. I feel that there is no time in our already crowded lives for an extra 3 hours a day. I myself am too busy to sit out an extra 3 hours every day, and I certainly wouldn’t have the time to do the homework from an extra 3 hours of class, much less the homework from the already 8 hour school day. I vote no on longer school days!
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I believe the new education system would prolong the school year by making the children stay in school more months each year rather than more hours each day. Making the school year longer will improve the grades of American school children. Having a longer school year will allow more time to teach things in more detail; having more time will also allow more things to be taught in one school year meaning that schools will be able to teach more things to students before they get into college. Having longer school years will also mean that schools will be able to spend less time reviewing last year’s material because it will have been less time since they were in school using the material.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this is not a good idea. I have a more severe opinion on this, however. I disagree with your view that more time in school would necessarily improve students' learning abilities. I think that spending more time in school will not produce better students, but worse ones. We could do with even less instructional time in the case of highschool and come out with better results. Why? Because when cooped up in a classroom and bombarded with routine after routine, students see learning as a threatening chore and not as a privilege. The key is not quantity of instruction, but quality. Children and teens both need to have time and room to explore their interests/extracirricular activities. They are not meant to be carbon copy products of the school system. The school system should be a place for students to discover their skills and passions--not to sit in a chair all day completing normal expectations.
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