There has been a push for longer school days and right here in Jacksonville we have a case study, which shows that might not be the direction we should head in. Last year Ed White and the other intervene schools extended their days by 45 minutes and then saw no appreciable improvement. Also we have to consider kids ability to focus on lessons. Right now school, as attention spans get shorter and shorter, is way to long for many of them
I believe a longer school year is a better answer. There is so much that is required to be taught now and not nearly enough time to do it and no time for flexibility and reteaching if necessary. The problem is exacerbated by the dozens of testing days and it’s unfortunate but most teachers spend the first few weeks of school teaching things students should have learned the year before putting them even farther behind.
Kids only go to school 180 days and that’s based on a system that we needed a century ago and most successful nations have school years that are a lot longer than ours.
I know we are looking for answers but rushing into solutions does not guarantee their success.
I have an issue with this article.... "as attention span gets shorter and shorter". This does not make any sense. Did I miss some kind of medical journal article that proved subsequent family generations will have a " shorter attention span" than the previous generation. Back in the days, the school day was much longer, not as much free time during the day and teachers required homework every night. If our child's education is failing or not meeting up to standards, why not lengthen the school day AND school year.
ReplyDeleteAlex... a concerned parent!
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-03-30-kids-attention_x.htm
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of studies out there, showing both positive and negative effects. Attention spans are one of the negatives. With that in mind, a longer year vs a longer day would yield a better result. And trust me, certain segments of the population ain't gonna want to pay for one. Paying for both....not happening.
'Longer school days' is conterminous with more abuse of teachers and consequently greater flight of teachers from the profession. This is yet another strategy aimed at destroying the Public Schools System. This is a Right-Wing Conspiracy; go demi-gods.
ReplyDeleteLonger school days, case studies, attention span deficits, and all the other issues affecting our public schools, and discussed and debated on this blog and all over this country have no real bearing on what is really going on with publication education. These civil discussions are what the conspirators/perpetrators of the Public Schools Take Over want teachers and pundits to be engaged in. While your energies are sapped in these civil discourses they are quietly plotting and spinning webs to further undermine the pillars of public education so that one day the whole structure will collapse.
ReplyDeleteRemember Jeb Bush started undermining the Public Education System; and now he is criticizing it. They are plotting, strategizing, and clandetinely taking over. They are operating like an Amazonian Anaconda, systematically strangling a Capybara every time it takes another breath. This is what is going on. Wake up people! Wake up teachers! Wake up students! Wake up parents! Wake up Taxpayers! I can't see why people are not getting it. Its already upon us. That is why they gave us VAM and CAST and all the erroneous testing and paper work and so forth.And because of all this I am quoting Frederick Douglas, An American Slave, whom I am certain would have already been seeing it as lucid as I am seeing.
"It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow too hard for us to work in the fields. The longest days were too short for Covey, and the shortest nights too long for him. I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of his discipline tamed me. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My intellect weakened, my natural resilience was crushed, my desire to read vanished, the cheerful spark in my eye died away. The dark night of slavery closed in upon me, and I was transformed from a man to a brute." Beware! Those days seem to be coming back! Those Privatizers of our Public Schools are COVEYS! Do not say at a later time you were not warned of those bitter days! Beware! Beware! Beware Oh Good People! Beware...
90 minute classes are too long. I didn't like them in college either on T Th, prefering the MWF 60 minute classes.
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