Posted on 11/20/2005 3:28:22 PM PST by freedom44
AP) CHICAGO Mayor Richard Daley says he believes Chicago Public Schools students get too much time off.
He says he will push for a six-day school week, a shorter summer break or a longer school day.
Daley made the remarks yesterday when talking to parents at an education conference.
Daley says students also need earlier exposure to foreign languages if the United States is going to compete in the global marketplace.
The mayor says he was inspired to think about the issues while on a trip to China. Chinese students, he says, learn English early in their school career, don't have a summer break and spend more days in school each week than American children.
teachers union wont go for it
Ah. He's pushing for taxpayer funded daycare. Rob Reiner should move to Chicago.
Wow, and for further enlightened thought, lets increase the work week form 40 to 55 hours. Sounds like a plan. Why China is a much better place than the U.S. Golly gosh oh gee...
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding...
Can we each have a little red book?
I doubt that Daley observed the average school kid in China. I wonder if he's planning to pay the teachers 20% more.
He'd be better off proposing each child in Chicago be issued a firearm and ammo than getting the Teacher's Union to buy into an extra day of school each week and shorter vacation breaks. LOL! This should be good.
I think its a ridiculous idea. If we want better students why not have a tougher curriculum? Having gone through law school i can honestly say that undergrad was a total joke where I learned nothing.
Did the mayor notice anything about the math and science curriculum in Chinese schools compared to that in Chicago?
More time in school doesn't help if its just more of the same.
I don't think that 6 days of junk with poor standards isn't notably better than 5 days of junk with poor standards.
The most important thing is to shore up the quality of what the students are learning and hold them to real standards.
Beyond that, I do think the school day should be longer, though, from about 8:30 to 4:30 or so. I'm not a fan of 6 days a week and shorter summers, in any case.
As you said the union won't go for it.
Maybe the teachers should work the extra hours for free - no salary increase, no extra union dues. Think Daley would like it then? ;)
This guy has too much time on his hands.
Hey it takes more time than 5 days a week to brainwash a child...sheesh...oh wait, nvm.
--Dickie needs to check out this thread--
It's an excellent idea.
Can't you hear it now?
This would be sooo unfair for kids to have SUCH A LONG DAY and so LITTLE VACATION!
Smirk, smirk - that's how the teachers will view it as well as working MORE for the same salary as a 9 month year.
Translation: I want to give the teachers union 20% more dues-paying members.
Response: Typical. Quantity never quality. "The blind leading the blind." How soon til they fall into the ditch?
The thing is that extended the school days and hours still wouldn't help. It's WHAT they are learning that makes them so *** stupid and dumb.
My first thought, too.
If Daley doesn't get the message soon, he will when the teachers' union 'forgets' to mail the check.
A tougher curriculum for the Chicago schools?Half the 12th graders read at an Eighth Grade level!
I live in a district on the West Coast where ALL the students regardless of ability are REQUIRED to take Algebra,Geometry,Adv Algebra,Chemistry and a foreign language.The idea being that the district was trying to compensate for the years black and Mexican kids were tracked into vocational programs.And those practices WERE wrong.
Yet this new system is just as absurd.The vast majority of kids do not have the preparation for these upper level courses and most are failing despite the fact these courses are watered down.
But the bureaucrats demand EVERBODY should go to college and its become a total travesty.
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