WASHINGTON (AP) -President Barack Obama is among those making the case that American kids aren’t spending enough time in school.
The president says that puts them at a disadvantage compared to other students around the globe. He’s pushing for schools to add time to classes, to stay open later and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
And he’s not the only one for it. His education secretary, Arne Duncan, notes that the American school calendar is based on the agrarian economy, and as he puts it, “not too many of our kids are working the fields today.“
While it’s true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school. In fact, U.S. kids spend more hours in school than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests.
As for adding to the school year, Obama admits that may not be a “wildly popular” idea, even with his two school-aged daughters.
*********UPDATE Sept. 28, 6:00 p.m.*************
Killian Elementary School in Columbia is already trying one of the president’s ideas. Starting this year, school starts ten minutes earlier than last year, and those extra ten minutes all go to math class.
Principal Eric Brown says, “I think if you’re looking to create students to excel academically, you’re going to have to look at those programs that are going to give the students the time that they need.“
But ten minutes is pretty minor compared to the thought of shortening summer break.
Fifth grade student Raigan Muldrow says, “Students wouldn’t like that. They would learn more, but I don’t think people would like that very much.“
Students might not like the idea, but teacher Nicole Whitley does. “I think every teacher feels like that. You kinda hate at the end of the day, the students kind of get into something and you think, ‘Gosh, if I only had 10 more minutes!‘ Or at the end of the year you feel like maybe you didn’t cover everything as well as you could have just due to, you know, the time constraints,“ she says.
South Carolina students don’t have to start worrying yet about losing any of their summer vacation. State Department of Education spokesman Jim Foster says there’s no way the state could lengthen the school day or the school year statewide without a lot more money. He says education was cut about $400 million last year, and having teachers stay longer or work additional days, along with keeping buildings open and air conditioning running longer, would cost a lot of money the state doesn’t have.
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