Well apparently President Obama feels our children should be in school more. He would love to see longer school days, shorter summer vacations and get this also open on weekends. Umm excuse me but when do kids get to be kids??? Yes there are other Countries that are ahead of us as far as students grades but guess what we already go to school longer then they do (Asia). Oh President Obama is not the only one behind this also education secretary, Arne Duncan is too.
As a parent I can tell you my kids are in school alot and they come home with a few hours of homework every night. Extending hours is not going to help it will only cut out on any free time that they possibly have and its not much.
you can read more here
So do you think our kids need longer hours and more school?
Honestly, I dont think it would hurt at all, I think its either Japan or China that have much longer school days (and hey last time I looked they were smarter than us overall). I think more school hours and less homework would be ideal. Son' of mine heard it last night and was disgusted oh well it'll be interesting to see does it come into play!
they said we are in school more
While it's true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school. In fact, U.S. kids spend more hours in school than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests.
My kids are in school 7.5 hours a day - I think that is enough. I hope this never happens.
Hey, the faster we can speed up their education, the faster we can get em out of school, and into the military, so we can be the world police, and still have the world hate us!
My aunt is a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools though and they have made some changes. While I was stunned when she first mentioned and described the change, I have to admit I like the way they do things at that particular school (and my inner school-aged self is jealous of their seemingly constant vacations!)--I don't like it as much as the current schedule though. Apparently all chicago schools will be going this route soon. Their schedule is this:
"Although the new calendar year for the 132 schools making the change will be different, it is not exactly radical. Students at the year-round schools will spend 170 days in the classroom and get to leave in mid-June—just as their traditional counterparts do. But the new school year will start up again during the first week of August, rather than around Labor Day, and will include frequent short breaks throughout the year."
And the official Chicago public school page that illustrates this schedule is here