Posted on 09/27/2009 8:05:16 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"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.
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Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.
Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The rub is that if Obama spends more time in the White House we would be put into greater disadvantage.
Not only unions but it would cost a fortune. I hear they are talking about four day school weeks. Obama is not even in the zone on this one.
as a homeschooler, i have found this to be true... with my oldest son, his first eight years of school (K-7) were done in 2-4 hours a day, 3-4 days a week... (2 hours in the early years making its way to 4 hours as he got older)... he is now in eighth grade and is doing a full day of school (a good 7 hours) 4 days a week, about 8 weeks a quarter... we go really hard for 6 weeks, then take the learnings from those 6 weeks and polish them for another 2-4 weeks... and then start the next quarter....
The union has been fighting to extend hours for years. It also wants public education to start at birth. Obama is saying what the NEA wants him to say. They'll just hire more "educators" to handle the added time. More dues for the union. More voters tied to the Democrat party for their income.
Kids in year round school retain information better than those who take 3 months off, and it doesn’t take as long to get back up to speed the following year.
Maybe if the schools spent less time on feel-good activities, on political correctness, and on praise songs for our Dear Leader, they could more done during the current school day and school year.
I'd say it depends on how much is involved. And the possibility of new hires.
1) They consistently fail to realize that **conservatives** must stop “Waiting for Godot”. If were are going to save this nation we **must** get our nation's children into tuition-free PRIVATE conservative schools! We must do this NOW! We must do this ourselves! All those quotes from Lenin, Hitler, and Mao about educating the next generation are TRUE!!
2) I am amazed at how seriously clueless so many conservatives are about government schooling. We see comments on Free Republic daily from conservatives who foolishly believe that government schools would be “fixed” if only:
* The NEA were abolished
* The Department of Education were abolish
* Local control were re-instituted
* More parents volunteered in the PTA
* If conservatives controlled the school boards
* If evolution were eliminated
* We had the Pledge and prayer
* If government schools were only like they were in the early 1960s ( 50s) (40s) etc.
ad nauseam!
Government schools always have been and always will be socialism for parents who want something for FREE! Socialism can not be fixed!
ALL government schools from the very beginning in the mid-1800s are an object lesson for all children in socialism. All children learn ( just by attending) that the government can take money from their neighbor to pay for a service their parents want for free. Well?...If education can by taken from your neighbor's wallet, why not FDR's New Deal, retirement, disability, prescriptions, health care, free art and public radio, transportation, food, clothing, housing, and anything else the voting mob wants for free?
Government schools didn't make FDR's New Deal or Obamacare possible. Government schools made them INEVITABLE!!!!
Dick, I always enjoy reading this post again.
The main reason behind this idea is to raise teacher salaries. In fact there is no evidence to support the idea that longer school days and longer school years are helpful for most students.
Anymore, it's two months, not three.....
.....besides, if they are already not learning when they are in school, there is nothing to retain.
I say, do a better job with the time they already have BEFORE expanding the school year.
Cut the PC crap and teach the bread and butter of learning...the three R's so to speak. Spend more time on these and less time on social engineering and the kids will learn in the time they already have in school.
You took the words right out of my post. Just when I think I couldn't abhor this president more, he says just one more thing to solidify my disgust.
It’s not worth it. Once they are out of school, they get to work every day of the year for the rest of their lives (assuming their job doesn’t get outsourced.) They should get a summer break to have fun / be creative / relax / make memories.
We have a friend who is a teacher in the Dallas ISD. She teaches 2nd grade. They consolidated two classes, and put them together in her one room. Took away the teacher’s aid. Took away all support, and gave her several developmentally challenged, and several purely retarded students. She’s already pretty much given up on really teaching. It’s turned into a baby-sitting class, with less than 15 minutes per student, probably less than 10 per student since so much time has to be spend on these “special needs” students. The smart ones will be bored, the ones who can achieve but need help won’t since they won’t get the time they need, and the “special needs” students won’t advance at all since she just doesn’t have the resources and assistance needed to work with these children.
It’s not more days in the classrooms. It’s providing a learning environment that actually works.
Kids do not need more hours in school. They need better schools and more qualified teachers. And I wish schools would stop curving grades, it is now so bad my kids are complaining about it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Please read post #29.
Better or more qualified teachers, and an end to curving grades will not fix the government schools.
Government schools are an object lesson in socialism. Just by attending kids learn to be comfortable with accepting money from their neighbor to pay for something their parents want for free.
Please read post #29.
If these were private schools, I would agree with you. As I posted previously my homeschoolers had 2 hours of formal study 5 days a week nearly all year.
However...Year round schooling will **NOT** fix government schools!
Government schools are an object lesson in socialism. Just by attending kids learn to be comfortable with accepting money from their neighbor to pay for something their parents want for free.
Government did not make the IRS, FDR's New Deal, and Obamacare and every other socialist give-away possible. Government schools made it **inevitable**!!
Our grandkids are on this year round treadmill.
We are afraid that by the time they get out of highschool, they will burnt out.
Their times off are minimal, and during that time the coaches, dance instructors and tutors keep right on with their schedules and some try to increase their schedult.
Our GKs biggest complaint is they never get to come spend a few days or a week with the grandparents or take relaxed day trips. As noted above, the short time periods, they are off are pre scheduled with the non class room activities, which don’t take a break.
We hear the same complaint from Granparents up and down the West Coast where their GKs have year round school.
He is a complete frackin’ idjit.
Please read post #29.
Less time on feel-good activities or political correctness will not fix the government schools.
Fewer worship songs to Obama or anyone else will not fix the government schools.
Even doing more serious study during the day will not fix the government schools.
Government schools are an object lesson in socialism. Just by attending kids learn to be comfortable with accepting money from their neighbor to pay for something their parents want for free.
Government did not make the IRS, FDR's New Deal, and Obamacare and every other socialist give-away possible. Government schools made it **inevitable**!!
Again, please read post #29. We must save our nation. We must educate our children in private, tuition-free, conservative schools.
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