The Wrong Solution for Education
Yesterday, the new Secretary of Education announced plans to push for longer school years in the United States as a method of making our country more competitive with nations around the world.
This reform seems like a pushover. Instead of really taking a look at how we are educating our children and devising new educational strategies; the plan seems to be let’s simply give ourselves more time to teach these children, cheating them out of much-needed breaks in the academic calendar.
While there is no doubt that more time in the classroom gives us more time to teach and therefore may increase learning, we must not look at it from an absolute numbers perspective. What is the marginal benefit to increasing the time these kids are in the classroom? At what point, does does the additional benefit gained become no longer worth the time that must be spent in the classroom?
From my recent experiences in the transition from high school to college, I have been awestruck about how much time our public schools “waste.” There were many classroom days that could have been used much more effectively than they were. We already are wasting too many task hours in our schools at present, instead of simply extending the days, why not get rid of these worthless hours and use them for truly effective instruction time.
If you were running a business and your employees were wasting 5 hours of their week playing fantasy football, would you follow the lead of Secretary Duncan and extend the workday by 1 hour or would you ensure that your employees were being more effective with the current 8 hour workday by stopping the worthless waste of time on fantasy football?
Sounds easy enough there. It’s one thing if we had a 4 hours school day and wanted to make it 5, but I can assure you that by 2:55pm last year, I was more than ready to make the break for home. I could’ve have lasted another hour.
Instead of simply extending the school year, we need to take a hard look at the different ways we can educate our children. By searching around the nation and globe for innovate strategies that can be implemented on a school-by-school basis in a cost-effective manner, we will achieve much greater success than simply keeping the doors open a few more week in the year.
6:44 pm on February 28th, 2009
I agree. Same old 19th Century stuff and methods will not cut it. It is my opinion that new methods must be used must be used to capture the individual student’s attention and feed her/him what they need. All students are not the same or have the same learning capabilities.
A student raised in a low educational background cannot learn as well as a student raised in a high educational background.
6:50 pm on February 28th, 2009
A longer school year isn’t going to cut the drop-out rate, nor will it increase student achievement. Making programs relevant to student needs and strategies that engage students is what will increase their achievement and keep them in school. We have 21st century learners out there — it’s time we all become 21st century educators.
8:28 pm on February 28th, 2009
Neil,
How is it that a longer school year will hurt these students, or their education? You write as if you indict all educators for those students that have failed. It would make sense if these educators actually owned the process, but they do not and are doing the best that they can, with what they have available to them.
Additionally, some of the posters here suggest teaching a 21st century student with 21st century educators. Just exactly how do you propose we do that? Do we now pay for these educators to go back to school to meet up to par with our new standard for a teacher? Shall I educate you all on the fiscal crisis already in our midst? These teachers are still as underpaid as they were 20 years ago, and you want them to do more with less. Shall I ask you how all of you spent your workday? I am sure it was riddled with 100%, constant productivity while being gainfully employed the entire time. Hogwash!
I have an excellent idea. How about we make the community as a whole responsible for a childís education? Or better yet here is an even better ideaówe make the student responsible for the studentís outcome in life. Vicariously, this belongs to the parent. It would appear that we need better education for parents on how to be better parents, rather than throw the book at these fine educators who have been playing against the odds all these years. What a cop out! We finally have someone trying to better education with a fresh idea. It may not be what you want to hear, but itís an idea none the less. How about we give him the benefit of the doubt, instead of the naysayers that always want to preach on what the ìotherî guy isnít doing.
If we are going to preach the failures of education, let us take a good look at our own backyard. It is truly amusing how many grammatical errors I found in all of these posts.
9:26 pm on February 28th, 2009
Extending the school year is a simplistic response. How about insisting on better content DURING the existing school year first! My daughter comes home half the time with no homework and frequently spends the school day at “cupcake parties” and discussing global warming. Heck, the first 5 years of elementary school she spent singing Kumbiya and discussing social responsibility. And we wonder why our kids fall behind other countries in math and science? Put some meat into the curriculum and insist that the teachers actually “teach”, instead of field trips to amusement parks and turning on a movie to kill a day. And the teachers unions perpetuate this nonsense.
9:34 pm on February 28th, 2009
Ever wonder why past generations seem to have gotten a better overall education? It’s because they spent more time on the basics, and less time on the politically correct nonsense being force fed our kids. More math, science, writing. The three “R’s”…remember. And how about…oh my gosh…dare I say it….READING A BOOK! Or is the Education Secretary merely suggesting extending the school year to create even MORE opportunity to teach our kids politically correct, socially responsible drivel. Just buying kids more computers and going on more field trips isn’t going to do the job. And if the school year is extended the teachers union will certainly find a way to kill this additional time also, so that the teachers can make it home by 4 pm (…and earlier on Wednesdays).
11:00 pm on February 28th, 2009
I go to school. I hate having to go 180 days.
I think it may increase the dropout rate.
Better content and teachers who tech well are needed, not a longer year to sit around in hel-, I mean a classroom.
11:16 pm on February 28th, 2009
AirForceAMMO
“How is it that a longer school year will hurt these students, or their education?”
- Its a fantastically limp proposition when the actually learning process is broken. And being broken, what value is there in continuing to step in the glass? Are you going to be the one paying out the money to cover these extra days that cash strapped school budgets cant afford as is, who’ve already cut so much that is important to the general development of children beyond the three R’s? The government certainly cant, and wont, with the billions and eventual trillions in invisible monopoly money its spending now.
“I have an excellent idea. How about we make the community as a whole responsible for a childís education? Or better yet here is an even better ideaówe make the student responsible for the studentís outcome in life. Vicariously, this belongs to the parent. It would appear that we need better education for parents on how to be better parents, rather than throw the book at these fine educators who have been playing against the odds all these years. What a cop out! We finally have someone trying to better education with a fresh idea. It may not be what you want to hear, but itís an idea none the less. How about we give him the benefit of the doubt, instead of the naysayers that always want to preach on what the ìotherî guy isnít doing.”
- The nay-sayers are in fact right in this case, whether or not ‘you’ want to hear it. This is not a fresh idea in any light. You are right that this is a social problem, there is no doubt about that. its being developing for decades while the country has sat high and dry on the bounty of the outside world. Its incredible complex and will take uncountable actions, seen and unseen, to resolve. As such this idea doesnt even rate as a band-aid to the larger issues.
“If we are going to preach the failures of education, let us take a good look at our own backyard. It is truly amusing how many grammatical errors I found in all of these posts.”
- Overall, you’ve either had an exceptional experience in public school, you never actually went to public school, or your a fool. And really, pointing out other peoples grammatical pit-falls is a sure tinge of the latter and slashes the tires of credibility.
11:26 pm on February 28th, 2009
You people have got to be kidding me…ok, let’s screw the kids over because adults can’t manage their money nor teach our kids new, more efficient methodologies…BECAUSE THE OLD ONES ARE ARCHAIC AND INEFFICIENT. If this crap happens…home-schooling rates will double or quadruple. People are sick and tired of crummy outdated school systems. This is coming from yet another ACADEMIC who doesn’t have a grip on reality. Why don’t they do something useful and FREEZE all of the tuition rates. College is becoming SO EXPENSIVE people are beginning to wonder if there is a pay-off. Why in the HELL would you incur 100K in school debt to get a 28K per year job – if you can find one in this economy? It doesn’t make financial sense. Instead of worrying about extending the freakin’ school year, let’s teach our children how to use money and not live beyond their means. Let’s teach our children that the government can’t balance a checkbook and spends irresponsively. Let’s teach our children this is NOT how you grow up…extending the school year is NOT the answer – far from it.
8:55 am on March 1st, 2009
I couldn’t agree more. A longer school year is NOT the answer, but a recipe for creating neurotic children. Look, I’m 52 years old, when I was a kid, the school year ran from Labor Day to Memorial day. Summer vacation was three months long. We also got a Christmas break of two weeks and a week at Easter. We had a lot of time to do something that is just as important as education: be children. The fact is that kids burn out rather quickly. They aren’t adults and cannot be expected to function as adults. The problem isn’t with the length of the school year; nine months is plenty of time. Rather, teachers are using unproven theories to teach. In truth, the old school three Rs and rote and repetition is the only effective way to teach children. It works and those of my generation (and older) are living proof of it. Our education system is broken and only became that way starting about 30 years ago. This is why college graduates today have the equivalent of a ninth grade education of 40 years ago. Parents, too, are part of the problem. Most kids today have caretakers, not parents. Their home lives are chaos compared to earlier generations. Every one should consider that the serious problems with education and problem children correlates very tightly with women leaving the home and going to work. This isn’t to say that women need to get back in the kitchen where they belong, but rather, that if people are going to have children, one parent needs to leave the workforce and concentrate on homemaking. The old standby excuse of “but we need two incomes” doesn’t wash. If a couple needs two incomes, they can’t afford to have children anyway and need to rearrange their priorities before procreating. Besides, because so many families are two income, employers have been lowering compensation levels to account for this.
9:03 am on March 1st, 2009
And I should add that college is NOT a right. It is an earned privilege. Only our best and brightest should be admitted to college and only the best and brightest of those admitted to degrees. College is to prepare our leaders, scientists, engineers, teachers, etc. not grades 13 through 16 (as it has become). Only about 15% – 18% of our poplulation should have college degrees. This is about the average for a modern industrialized country. Those who qualify should not have to worry about how they are going to pay for it. State funded higher education would be quite affordable if we didn’t try to educated everyone. But college has become a business; it’s about making money, not education.
12:30 pm on March 1st, 2009
The kids who do not want to do well, will probably drop out more often if school becomes a chore. People who don’t want to learn will not do any better because you make them “sit at the table until you finish everything on your plate”! If kids are dropping out, it reflects our teachers…maybe they need to see how ineffective teachers are in area’s that have a high drop out rate or where kids are not doing well…kids are a reflection of their teachers performance!!!!
9:09 pm on March 1st, 2009
Alright Lone, I’ll bite. If the education system is so rotten, explain to me then how all of you turned out so well? Or did you? Since the “tires of credibility are slashed,” let me provide for you some data that measure up to the Secretary’s recommendations.
- Globally, most developed nations have longer school years than the U.S. Examples include Sweden, 180 days; Netherlands, 200 days; China, 230 days, and England, 180 days.
- Closer to home, 32 U.S. states require at least 180 school days annually and are not getting them.
- Recent research shows that an achievement gap exists between U.S. and Asian students. One reason is that U.S. students, their parents, and their teachers maintain unnecessarily lower performance standards than their Chinese and Japanese counterparts.
Which begs the question, what exactly does America want? In recent years parents were in an uproar over the difficulty level of administered tests. Some even called it racially discriminatory. So the education system buckled and now itís not stringent enough.
What would longer days provide your children? For one, little lag time during the summer that is far too long to begin with. You say that children would not be allowed to be children if a school year was extended. What exactly do you believe is happening during those summer months without adult supervision? Any clue as to why children drop out of school? Have you ever heard of the saying, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop?”
It goes without saying that a child whose mind is not being constantly challenged in a positive manner will find ways to vent their boredom. Unfortunately, this usually manifests itself in to unproductive events and you wonder why more and more kids are finding themselves in trouble out in the streets.
For those families that are well off and can find something productive for their children to do doing the summer (go to grandmaís, Disney World, etc.) then this program is probably not for them. But consider the double-income family and those in underprivileged homes. What do you think those children are doing during the summer?
Of course children will not support this plan. It means less time living unaccountable lives during the months not in school. Who wouldn’t want that? But if you want your child to be a productive member of society, then a work ethic has to be taught and something our generation has failed in teaching them. Ever wonder why the Enron’s, Adelphia’s and Tyco’s were so prevalent in just the last decade? They all dealt with CEOs whose generation grew up on an easier way out then what their parents were forced to succumb to…a hard day’s work.
11:57 am on March 2nd, 2009
AirForceAMMO:
“Ever wonder why the Enronís, Adelphiaís and Tycoís were so prevalent in just the last decade? They all dealt with CEOs whose generation grew up on an easier way out then what their parents were forced to succumb toÖa hard dayís work.”
- I’m not sure how that proves your point – those CEO’s were 50-60+ that’s the generation I thought you were defending as hard workers?
8:43 pm on March 2nd, 2009
Nope, those folks were born in the the 40’s. The group that I am referrng to were alive during the Great Depression. It’s not the same thing and definitely proves my point that we have become a society that operates on “give mes,” and “what I have coming to me.”
Bottom line, you want your kids to do well in school? Take the time out of your busy day and find out what they’re learning in school and help them. To rely soley on the school system and then blame them for the shortcomings of your kids not only shows poor parenthood, but the fact that if there is a limiting factor in today’s educators, I can now see how and why.
11:12 pm on March 2nd, 2009
I agree on your second point with the parental involvement, it ultimately is their kids. They complain all the time people tell them how to raise their kids, but if they are going to do that then take control of their education and make sure they are having the success needed to make do in life.
However, I don’t buy the work ethic. I think MY generation of young people are some of the hardest working yet. Go a little beyond me to the young twenties and you’ll see some pretty dang hard working folks in the professional world. Just because you aren’t working on the line doesn’t mean you’re not working hard.