is mind blowing!!!
Why is it that the majority of America is AGAINST Longer School Days and Years? It makes no sense to me. As a child i LOVED all the vacations that i used to get. Thanksgiving Week. The 2 Weeks for Christmas. The Week for Easter/Spring Break. And all the other random days in between. But as a child i just saw it as FUN TIME that i didn't get while i was in school. As an Adult i feel that it is a necessity for our children and our society to put more into our Schools. What is wrong with wanting to lengthen the amount of time our children spend in school?
I hear this debate all the time, " Children NEED their down time, they NEED all those vacation dates". But Why? What real good comes from it?
I honestly don't understand why there are parents in this country that are so against the lengthening of the school day as well as the school year. What bad could really come of it? I have noticed that other Industrialized countries have their children either in school longer throughout the day or they go to school more days out of the year. And these kids grow up perfectly fine. They have their 'fun time' or 'down time' as some parents like to put it. But they are also learning so much more, and earlier too, than their American counterparts. And what's wrong with that?
The reason that the American school calender runs from September through May (pushing into August or June a couple weeks in some districts/states) was because of WHAT America did to survive back in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Children no longer 'work' the farms or anything like that during the Summer. That was the sole reason as to why the school year was only between September and May. So why shouldn't the school year be extended now that children agriculture is an economic and society NEED?
I honestly don't understand why there are parents in this country that are so against the lengthening of the school day as well as the school year. What bad could really come of it? I have noticed that other Industrialized countries have their children either in school longer throughout the day or they go to school more days out of the year. And these kids grow up perfectly fine. They have their 'fun time' or 'down time' as some parents like to put it. But they are also learning so much more, and earlier too, than their American counterparts. And what's wrong with that?
The reason that the American school calender runs from September through May (pushing into August or June a couple weeks in some districts/states) was because of WHAT America did to survive back in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Children no longer 'work' the farms or anything like that during the Summer. That was the sole reason as to why the school year was only between September and May. So why shouldn't the school year be extended now that children agriculture is an economic and society NEED?
What is so detrimental to the child if they were to be in school longer? That is the main response i have to people whom are against longer school days and/or years. Seriously, what?
The only somewhat decent reasoning i have heard of regarding WHY the school year shouldn't be any longer nor the school day, is MONEY. Of course it has to do with money. Politicians and School Board members alike do agree that there would be much more spending in Education if the Year and Day was lengthened. But honestly, shouldn't there be more money spent in schools anyways? I think that if our government; be it local,district,state or federal; would learn how to budget properly and not waste it there would be more than enough money to spend on schools. Honestly; don't they understand the better our children are Educated, the better this Nation will run? Other countries seem to understand that.
The average Japanese school kid goes to school at about 830 am and doesn't complete classes until roughly 6pm. That goes for China as well. They also go to school on Saturdays also, but they are not full days like they are Monday through Friday. Germany goes to school for about 240 days out of the year, and Singapore goes for 280 days, and roughly they go at least 8 hrs a day, their lunch break is much longer than the American lunch break though. Yes that is right they really do attend school that many days a year. Now America, a record 180 days a year. Seriously; there is that much of a gap between America and our Foreign counterparts regarding education. It saddens me, that we don't value the education of our children like we should.
Yet, American's still wonder why there are always all of these Foreign Exchange Students 'Taking our Childrens' Spots" at universities. Maybe it's because they work their ASSES off far more than we do when it comes to Education. I'm not saying that American's don't work. Or that American's don't study. But Maybe people should think twice before they get pissed off about their child not getting into a good school, or any school at all because of others 'Beating them out'. That's life. Maybe if we actually did something about it, and fixed our shit hole of an education system this wouldn't happen so much.
That's another thing, i am understanding why more and more parents are deciding to Home School their children. You choose how long or how short your child is spending on their daily and weekly curriculum. You choose how they learn it, instead of some accepted method that doesn't always work with every child. As a mother of 2, with a toddler and a preschooler i am really on the fence if i want to enroll my children in the Public; government ran, school system. I don't want to home school them exactly because i want them to have the school yard experiences that i had. But i'm afraid that's the best place for them now. Especially with the NCLBA still in place.
That's something that sickens me with America. The NCLBA (No Child Left Behind Act). It's there solely to just keep pushing kids through grades 1-12.....and by pushing i mean herding. Seriously. That has got to be the worst piece of Legislature to ever get past. What good comes out of it? Nothing. Children get herded through school like cattle, regardless if they're ready or not (be it Mentally or Emotionally). Just because they want to push children through, so that there's room or whatever for the next set. Where's the learning in that? Tell me, Please.
I know of several people, personally that have been affected by the NCLBA. And it's ridiculous. These people should have NEVER graduated High School. And it hasn't really done them any good. When they got into College it hindered them greatly. Because they were so used to just being herded up into the next level of schooling regardless of if they truly understood that year or not.
My outlook on this is that the NCLBA should be abolished. The school year and school day should definitely be longer. Teachers and Schools need to be held more accountable. And Lastly our children need to truly LEARN.
Our Children are our future. And Hindering them from the beginning because of our own close-mindedness is absurd.
These are some of the links that i used to research what i blogged about. Because;No, i am not a dumbass i do actually care about what i write about.
4 comments:
My only comment is that before they make the school year longer, they need to focus and spend money on improving the curriculum and tightening up/enforcing standards for whether or not someone passes to the next grade. In my opinion, before this is done, extending the school year is less than worthless and a waste of money. Additionally, I don't know how they expect to accomplish making schools have longer hours when so many schools are currently having to go down to a four day week in order to cut on costs.
Uh, that was Katie Watanabe, by the way.
I agree with you, in that I don't understand why school supporters are opposed to the extended school year in principle -- if it's such a great thing, why not more of it? Personally, I think the schools are failing miserably and that extending the school year would not help in the slightest because the institution itself is the problem. Have you read Dumbing Us Down?
@Katie:You completely right Kaite, i just wrote this blog out because i was getting so annoyed by all the talk on fb and everywhere else about how it would be ridiculous to lengthen the school year or day because children need to play. But before any of this can be done they do need to fix the curriculum and enforcing standards in our schools, espeicaly the NCLBA.
@Linda: I have not read "Dumbing us Down" yet. Is it online? If so send me the link, i would love to check it out.
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