I agree with the President in that the school year is based on an agrarian economy as my mother was one of those children working in the fields. I disagree with him about whats wrong as some of the major faults in education are that we don't teach our children why they are learning all of this nor giving them anymore reason to want to learn either than threats or ridicule. Summer vacation for most children in the US consists of lying around playing video games at home alone while their parents work... they generally are bored out of their minds and the only reason they hate school is the compulsory nature of it where they are made to go rather than made to want to go.
Year round education would be better with more breaks given throughout the year so that when Winter's at it's worst they can be given a week here or there off without it affecting them because they'll simply make it up later and by doing this year round you won't have to waste so much time at the start of the school year reteaching what they learned the year before.
You could also do more nature trips and social functions like carrying the class out for a fishing trip and instead of parents paying baby sitters over the entire Summer... the teachers would oversee them.
I see nothing wrong wit this except one thing... education today by our teachers is almost 19th century and even many teachers are railing out about how poorly they do in regards to academic testing as a whole. Teachers are still using teachers editions to not just teach class but to word for word how to explain the days topic. Students see this and think the teacher doesn't even know the material which was a leading reason I dropped out and got my GED... I as a student did not see anything that they were teaching as being worth anything and in subjects like History / Social Studies... I knew more than they did.
Children need a new educational system for the new millennium instead of being so far behind. Don't keep them limited on grade levels but advance them in each course so that courses they excel in they can advance more quickly and the courses they do more poorly in they are taught at a slower pace. We should graduate every student course by course like degrees so they have a degree ins Math, a degree in Social Studies and if they complete their math studies which should take twelve years to master in ten years, that gives you two years to add a secondary course in something they are failing or new courses such a pre college courses so young people might be encouraged to go to college or maybe at least be given a higher degree of education. Reward them for performance and help them where they need helped.
Show them how to apply what they are learning and what jobs they might pursue. Do not focus everything on white collar jobs. Show respect for blue collar labor by training the children for the reality most will have a blue collar job in life... but that they can invest in stocks and businesses where they can have the best of both worlds.
I see nothing wrong with the idea... but if I see nothing but the idea or some half baked idiot idealist trying to teach children social values that parents alone should teach... I would oppose it strongly.
I have been thinking about improving education for a long time and I have some well grounded observations as to whats wrong and how to fix it that have absolutely nothing to do with right or left political views... and that is what I am afraid Obama will pursue here, he wants more time given and the article is very correct that time is not the problem... it's how we teach our children that is the problem.
Question US
"Obama Wants More School, Shorter Break." Question: Does he plan to use the power of the federal government and the Department of Education to make it happen? Is this the solution to our decline in educational competence worldwide?
Gulliver September 27, 2009 22:46:05
- 20 answers
- Read all 51 comments
- +4 raves
"Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe....
" 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,' Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press....
"Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
" 'Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,' Duncan told the AP. 'I want to just level the playing field.'
"While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time 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)....
"Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
" 'Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents,' Duncan said. 'They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.' "
http://news.aol.com/article/more-school-obama-would-curtail-s...
So is Duncan advocating extending educational opportunity (for children who are not motivated to be in the classroom) or is he suggesting a babysitting program at taxpayer expense? Shouldn't education motivate rather than compel?
" 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,' Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press....
"Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
" 'Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,' Duncan told the AP. 'I want to just level the playing field.'
"While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time 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)....
"Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
" 'Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents,' Duncan said. 'They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.' "
http://news.aol.com/article/more-school-obama-would-curtail-s...
So is Duncan advocating extending educational opportunity (for children who are not motivated to be in the classroom) or is he suggesting a babysitting program at taxpayer expense? Shouldn't education motivate rather than compel?
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Top Comment
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I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
I agree with the President in that the school year is based on an agrarian economy as my mother was one of those children working in the fields. I disagree with him about whats wrong as some of the major faults in education are that we don't teach our children why they are learning all of this nor giving them anymore reason to want to learn either than threats or ridicule. Summer vacation for most children in the US consists of lying around playing video games at home alone while their parents work... they generally are bored out of their minds and the only reason they hate school is the compulsory nature of it where they are made to go rather than made to want to go.(more)View thread
Year round education would be better with more breaks given throughout the year so that when Winter's at it's worst they can be given a week here or there off without it affecting them because they'll simply make it up later and by doing this year round you won't have to waste so much time at the start of the school year reteaching what they learned the year before.
You could also do more nature trips and social functions like carrying the class out for a fishing trip and instead of parents paying baby sitters over the entire Summer... the teachers would oversee them.
I see nothing wrong wit this except one t...
Hot on SodaHead
Sounds fishy to me. Is the president leading or organizing the local community?
None of the above
Each time we lengthen the school day we reduce the average educational scores of our children. If the President wants to go completely against scientific fact then everyone involved should be rather displeased.
That being said if he does it, it will be through federal funding reduction, and not the department of education.
What will be through "federal funding reduction?" This is not at all clear.
References as requested:
http://www.iae.edu.ar/pi/Docu...
http://www.economia.puc.cl/do...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/d...
"Significant increases in the quantity of schooling would be
required to bring about even modest increases in achievement. The costs
associated with extending the school days or years are, therefore, not
justifiable."
Cost, however, does not appear to be a significant factor for Obama. We can just borrow or print more money.
The authors go on to say:
"We have shown in this paper that the introduction of longer school days in
50% of the primary schools of the city of Buenos Aires in 1971 has modestly
improved only some of the educational attainments of that year’s cohort and
have not had general occupational or income effects, all of them measured
thirty nine or forty years after cohort’s graduation....
"... it is increasingly evident that in order to understand the educational
process a very deep revision of the educational production function approach is needed. This revision should give a much more important to issues like the quality of education, their contents and what happens in the educational situation per se, every day, every week, every month, inside the classrooms.
Quality beats quantity every time.
Sounds fishy to me. Is the president leading or organizing the local community?
None of the above
None of the above
Regarding voting, should we not ensure that people born in this country can at least meet the same requirements as those who are naturalized before they can vote? We require that people demonstrate competence before being licensed in so many different areas, but we overlook licensing of arguably the two most important functions of a good citizen, viz., parental skills and competence and citizenship knowledge and competence.
And as far as "bad" parents... how did they get that way in the first place? Let's put part of the blame on the private citizen... a lust for money... instateneous gratification... no Godly authority in their life. This has been in the works for years.This is not just "coincidental" that our society is the way it is. Also part of the blame must be put on the the big corporations who advertise... the big media who programs everyone with their nonsense... let's see... what else... big pharma who would love to put everyone on meds to control them.
And again... I didn't even check your profile to see if you're married or not and have kids... if not, you cannot make a sound "judgement", you can only go on hearsay.
None of the above
None of the above
I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
I am totally for investing tax dollars to education. I say we get rid of summer vacation and just give kids 2 weeks off every 8 weeks instead. This way there is little loss of knowledge between sessions.
What a shame our government doesn't hold education in as high a standard as it does our military industrial complex. Only 10% of the annual budget is appopriated to education, while 50% of it is allocated to military spending.
http://www.borgenproject.org/...
The other evidence I provide to assert my argument against longer-term schooling is the statistics regarding home-schooled students.
In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that homeschoolers who are homeschooled two or more years score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less. The new homeschoolers were scoring on the average in the 59th percentile compared to students homeschooled the last ...
What a shame our government doesn't hold education in as high a standard as it does our military industrial complex. Only 10% of the annual budget is appopriated to education, while 50% of it is allocated to military spending.
http://www.borgenproject.org/...
The other evidence I provide to assert my argument against longer-term schooling is the statistics regarding home-schooled students.
In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that homeschoolers who are homeschooled two or more years score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less. The new homeschoolers were scoring on the average in the 59th percentile compared to students homeschooled the last two or more years who scored between 86th and 92nd percentile.
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nch...
I agree with chaoskitty's methods being used during an average school year, but vehemently oppose lengthening the term. I don't believe the extension is a fix to the problem that already exists, but could quite possibly exacerbate it if we don't focus on what our children are being taught as well as what they aren't.
The federal government shouldn't spend a penny on education this is a state issue.
I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
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I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
I suppose you could cite the interstate commerce clause, since the kids of today will be the commerce leaders of tomorrow. Why not, it seems to justify everything else.
I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
in my opinion this standard schedule doesn't allow for the majority of students to become their best. not everyone works best when you have to switch through 7 periods a day and each only lasting 45 minutes.
after my junior year in high school i switched to a much smaller high school which featured block style classes. in this setup you would attend 3 classes one day and 2 the next. each of these classes would last 2 hours long. what a revelation it was to be able to concentrate for a couple of hour on one subject. i didn't feel the pressure to understand the material immediately and was actually able to ask question and get a lengthy response w...
in my opinion this standard schedule doesn't allow for the majority of students to become their best. not everyone works best when you have to switch through 7 periods a day and each only lasting 45 minutes.
after my junior year in high school i switched to a much smaller high school which featured block style classes. in this setup you would attend 3 classes one day and 2 the next. each of these classes would last 2 hours long. what a revelation it was to be able to concentrate for a couple of hour on one subject. i didn't feel the pressure to understand the material immediately and was actually able to ask question and get a lengthy response without the feeling of being rushed. the whole setting seemed a lot looser and it seemed everyone was able to enjoy themselves a lot more. that includes the students and the teachers. i only wish i had chosen to attend that school years earlier. might have made a difference in my motivation.
I think it is a great idea to improve the education of our children.
Year round education would be better with more breaks given throughout the year so that when Winter's at it's worst they can be given a week here or there off without it affecting them because they'll simply make it up later and by doing this year round you won't have to waste so much time at the start of the school year reteaching what they learned the year before.
You could also do more nature trips and social functions like carrying the class out for a fishing trip and instead of parents paying baby sitters over the entire Summer... the teachers would oversee them.
I see nothing wrong wit this except one t...
Year round education would be better with more breaks given throughout the year so that when Winter's at it's worst they can be given a week here or there off without it affecting them because they'll simply make it up later and by doing this year round you won't have to waste so much time at the start of the school year reteaching what they learned the year before.
You could also do more nature trips and social functions like carrying the class out for a fishing trip and instead of parents paying baby sitters over the entire Summer... the teachers would oversee them.
I see nothing wrong wit this except one thing... education today by our teachers is almost 19th century and even many teachers are railing out about how poorly they do in regards to academic testing as a whole. Teachers are still using teachers editions to not just teach class but to word for word how to explain the days topic. Students see this and think the teacher doesn't even know the material which was a leading reason I dropped out and got my GED... I as a student did not see anything that they were teaching as being worth anything and in subjects like History / Social Studies... I knew more than they did.
Children need a new educational system for the new millennium instead of being so far behind. Don't keep them limited on grade levels but advance them in each course so that courses they excel in they can advance more quickly and the courses they do more poorly in they are taught at a slower pace. We should graduate every student course by course like degrees so they have a degree ins Math, a degree in Social Studies and if they complete their math studies which should take twelve years to master in ten years, that gives you two years to add a secondary course in something they are failing or new courses such a pre college courses so young people might be encouraged to go to college or maybe at least be given a higher degree of education. Reward them for performance and help them where they need helped.
Show them how to apply what they are learning and what jobs they might pursue. Do not focus everything on white collar jobs. Show respect for blue collar labor by training the children for the reality most will have a blue collar job in life... but that they can invest in stocks and businesses where they can have the best of both worlds.
I see nothing wrong with the idea... but if I see nothing but the idea or some half baked idiot idealist trying to teach children social values that parents alone should teach... I would oppose it strongly.
I have been thinking about improving education for a long time and I have some well grounded observations as to whats wrong and how to fix it that have absolutely nothing to do with right or left political views... and that is what I am afraid Obama will pursue here, he wants more time given and the article is very correct that time is not the problem... it's how we teach our children that is the problem.