Community | September 27, 2009 | 128 comments

Obama would curtail summer vacation

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33044676/

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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.

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.

Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.

"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."

end of excerpt

Source: MSNBC
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128 comments // Obama would curtail summer vacation

  • bombastinator
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  

    • So he wants to keep the schools open after hours and on the weekends so they have somewhere safe to go. Who is going to be working after hours and on the weekends. Better question is whos going to be paying for it. Another social service that the government will provide the citizens with. Free day care 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

      Isn't there own back yard safe? there homes? maybe if they weren't wandering the streets looking for trouble, they would be safe. Maybe the parents of these kids should take a little bit of responsibility for their own kids safety instead of the government doing it. Oh hell, the parents most likely aren't very resposible adults themselves. But of course thats not there fault. the government never taught them how to be responsible.

    • 2 years ago
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • While I agree with longer hours,I do not agree with denying school kids a summer vacation! How much pressure do you think a kid can take.The problem in education is the MCAS. Instead of teaching our kids to learn we teach them only to pass the stupid tests and this is so wrong! Dump MCAS and instead teach our kids to learn so that they can compete in the world. no other nation bases an educational system on standardized testing,and they are all ahead of us! Fix this problem and allow our kids to take summers off!

    • 2 years ago
  • brit50
    • 0
      brit50  
    • galwayman:

      I completely agree. Here in Texas it is all about the TAKS (Texas Assesment of Knowlege and Skills) Test. A basic end of yr. test that runs from 3rd grade to 11th grade. The entire curriculum of the year (excluding AP/advanced classes) is based on passing that test. Makes the curriculum lame and frankly quite dull.

    • 2 years ago
  • bombastinator
  • Manuel_Trujillo
  • metalcookiesxy70
    • 0
      metalcookiesxy70  

    • Learning and understanding, Some creative ways for students to get interested within the critique of the lesson, add a few demonstration and hands=on learning, and then to summarize it all up in a simplified way...

      Time goes only to expand the learning and understanding that basically is the same thing when you don't have extended time--There is only more of the same thing...Not actually touching out to those students...Extending the time is only wasting the time..

    • 2 years ago
  • seeker561
    • 0
      seeker561  

    • We have a cuuriculum designed for the manufacturing economy of 100 years ago run by a calendar rooted in the agrarian economy of 200 years ago. No wonder it is working to well for today's needs.

      I hesitate to endorse a longer school year. I learned an awful lot of good stuff at summer camp, summer day camp and vacation trips with my family.

      I could go for a longer day though. There are a lot of latch key kids getting into trouble who would benefit from the supervision.

    • 2 years ago
  • metalcookiesxy70
    • 0
      metalcookiesxy70  

    • For September, since there are a lot of other kids who really need to review, because they usually forget over time..Although they have been to those afterschool sessions they just need basic reviewing in the classroom...Err NCLB needs to be dropped however..

      October, testing begins which follows up on everything which was in August...And some new things...

      Yes, yes the ways that teachers teaching and the techniques upon the curriculum definitely needs to be changed...

      Certainly because it wasn't like this back before Bush was elected, everyone wasn't failing as much, hence there were no days subtracted from the school year...

      Its the teachers/administrators on one hand that needs to do their teaching method a entirely different way, and as for the students, well you have to try hard, because ya just cannot fix stupid...

    • 2 years ago
  • clownpuncher
  • mcjk
  • libertyforall
  • mcjk
    • 0
      mcjk  
    • clownpuncher:

      Ah, libertyforall, once again getting in the way of someones answer.

      Well, libertyforall, I was actually just asking clownpuncher here if he believed encouraging more and better education was a strike against the President. I never made any implication that more funding or class time would equate to better education, it appears you assume I did.

      Now I have a question for you specifically, libertyforall. How will less funding and less time in school educate children better?

    • 2 years ago
  • libertyforall
    • 0
      libertyforall  
    • clownpuncher:

      mcjk,

      Actually your statement implied exactly what I stated. You said:

      "Are you saying encouraging more and better education is a strike against him?"

      This statement implies that Obama's proposal will provide better education. No need to twist your words as they were clear from your post.

      Quantity of education is not the problem. Our school years should be shortened to about 9 or 10 years and we could get everything we need. Most of high school learning is done past 9th grade and you are really just there to waste time half the year.

      It is about the quality of education that matters. This also starts at home, but providing better quality of education should be the focus. Which will never happen with government provided education.

    • 2 years ago
  • mcjk
    • 0
      mcjk  
    • clownpuncher:

      libertyforall,
      I never said that I agreed with Obama at all. Just asking clownpuncher how this is a strike against Obama.

      I agree quality of education is very important, but wouldn't more of higher quality education be nice as well.

      Can you explain this, and back it up?
      "Our school years should be shortened to about 9 or 10 years and we could get everything we need. Most of high school learning is done past 9th grade and you are really just there to waste time half the year."

      Problem is, public schools are funded by property taxes. So wealthy communities have wealthy schools. Poor communities have poor schools. Unfortunately, study after study shows there is a correlation between the success of school, and the funding behind it. http://bit.ly/103HXm

      More funding for poor schools would help their students.

    • 2 years ago
  • chelseaf89
    • 0
      chelseaf89  
    • clownpuncher:

      At least Obama is making an attempt to better education, which is something that hasn't happened in a long time. And more money would definitely help, better pay for teachers is better motivation, better textbooks, more supplies such as laptops for students and other technology for the classroom.

    • 2 years ago
  • crashbangnoises
    • 0
      crashbangnoises  
    • clownpuncher:

      my wife is a special education administrator. She travels around to 10 different schools in our area here in Nashville TN. I know first hand that more time in class and in school is a better thing. Half of her students (non special ed.) and almost all of her special ed. students don't have proper learning at home. A vast majority don't even live with there mother and father and are living with grandparents our aunts etc. Our country is already falling behind the rest of the world and we will be the ones who are soon immigrating to find work if we don't educate ourselves more.

    • 2 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • current89
    • 0
      current89  

    • I think this is a great idea; Sept. and October are generally wasted reviewing what you did the previous school year. In addition, Obama's plan of getting rid of tenure and re-vamping NCLB should help the education system as well.

    • 2 years ago
  • FishaHouse777
  • ScorpioGee
    • 0
      ScorpioGee  
    • FishaHouse777:

      Exactly. The time frame a kid spends in school is not the one shot problem we have. It's the content and the way school is structured. Not everyone's going to become a mathematician and not everyone's going to become an artist. School has to become more flexible.

    • 2 years ago
  • Reaper26
  • metalcookiesxy70
  • brit50
  • TheJerryMadden
  • metalcookiesxy70
    • 0
      metalcookiesxy70  

    • You can't fix stupid...What do they really say, when the students are still failing in school, regardless of time?
      Becuase that is the least of how to better students for education...

    • 2 years ago
  • Nettle
    • 0
      Nettle  

    • Good! I hope we also get to move the time schools start so that we don't have to be in school until 9am, make school days longer and have less homework. There's nothing more depressing than coming home from a 7-hour unproductive day in school to do 4-5 more hours of homework and studying.

    • 2 years ago
  • antifence_sitter
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