President Obama's proposal to increase school hours for public school children may surprise some folks in light of the 37 percentile lead in test scores by homeschoolers who notoriously spend less time in formal study than their public school peers.
Educational theorist and school reformer, John Goodlad of the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle, says, "Schools are not our major educators. Adding hours, days, and even weeks will not make them so."
According to President Obama's website, his mission is to ensure that
American children lead the world once again in creativity and achievement.
Perhaps the first logical step in achieving this goal is to ensure that America's highest achieving children recieve support and recognition. Does Obama support homeschoolers?
The next step might be to look to the academically-superior homeschool model for practices applicable to the public school system. Regardless of educational method, homeschoolers outperform public school children. What do homeschoolers have in common?
Shorter days, longer school year.
Contrary to the "More is Better" mindset illustrated by typical American consumption, homeschoolers spend less time in formal learning situations, yet they outperform school children. With this in mind, public school children might also benefit from shorter school days, perhaps year round, allowing for more unstructured time each day for the exercise and development of creativity. This model has proven itself within the homeschool community, regardless of homeschooling method.
Is more better?
Without regard to the homeschool example, what logic has contributed to the proposal of more school for children who already spend an average of 7 hours attendance in school and several hours more on homework assignments?
President Obama noted the longer school years in nations where children outperform U.S. students. Students in Italy, for example, have a longer school year, but shorter days. U.S. students actually spend more hours per year in school despite a shorter school year. Students in Asian countries, for example, have longer school years, but less hours per year, yet consistently outscore U.S. students on math and science tests (Obama proposes longer school day. Fox News).
Another reason in support of extending school days is to help working parents by providing a safe place for their children to wait.
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Comments
;-)
In a perfect world children could have half days in school but in this instance there'd be no one to attend to them when they got home. State approved babysitting is a major part of modern schooling. What they need to do is reassess their curriculum first before making changes to school hours, more of the same isn't going to fix the system. The suggestion has been made that if children in larger cities such as Detroit and Chicago stayed in school longer then certain kinds of crime would drop - I put it to the Obama administration that if the onus was put on parents to actually do their job and parent for a change, urban crime would plummet.
Enjoyed your POV on this. :) I was a bit stunned when I first read that this "liberal" administration wants to FORCE kids to spend more time in school. But then, politicians reinforcing the status quo shouldn't surprise me. What *really* bugs me is the masses of grassroots, civil-liberty-promoting liberals/progressives who don't recognize the simple philosophical and practical hypocrisy of a "free, democratic" culture preserving and encouraging a nakedly autocratic approach to education. Sigh...
"Another reason in support of extending school days is to help working parents by providing a safe place for their children to wait."
Another reason? Not likely, that is the PRIMARY reason. Even as a homeschooling parent I have volunteered as an elected member of the local school committee...you wouldn't believe the parents that come in and demand that 1) Kindergarten be full day and free, that pre-school be full day and free, 3) that pre-school start at age 3 (and be full day and free), and that the school system provide buses to pick these kids up.
Whats next? delivery rooms at the school so mothers can give birth and immediately have the children taken off their hands? Why do these parents even have kids?
I'm not "expert," but if they need a safe place for kids why not offer free extended days? It would be significantly less expensive, the children could use the time to do their voluminous homework and be tutored. Then the parents that didn't want their children in school wouldn't have to leave them there.
My sister stayed in extended day as a child, when I was in school they didn't offer such a thing so my brother and I chased each other around the house with knives until our divorced mother who couldn't get child support got home from working over time to support us. Not all consumers of the care would be irresponsible people looking to dump off their kids.
I would have less concern over extended hours if those hours were for unstructured play time. Imagine opening the school gyms and playgrounds to kids. During that time, the adult chaperones could develop friendly relationships with the kids, become guides and confidants.
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