Longer school year

[Trivun]

Hah, it doesn't matter for me because I'm at university. Although my brother's school used to finish at about 2.00pm and started around 8.30am, with barely any breaks. My old school also started at 9.00am and finished 4.00pm, but in Sixth Form we were allowed to leave as early as 2.20pm if we'd finished lessons for that day. Or stay in and read in the library. Pretty good, actually

 

[Clashero]

I've been to both an Argentine private school and an American public school, and I can tell you that a longer school year is not the solution. You need better education, because the current system is shite. Everything is made simpler, the teachers go at the pace of the slowest student, the tests are a joke (10 multiple choice questions? Please), and the reading lists are ridiculous (we read 4 books in one year)

 

[mike1921]

Here in America there is a debate brewing as to whether we should have longer school days and also a longer school year. I know many other countries already do year round school, and I think this topic should be discussed more in Congress, the media, etc.




So what are your thoughts? I feel that we should have longer school years and days, or at least try it out in a few schools and see if test scores improve before we make it like that in all schools.

Hell no, school is easy as hell already and there's no need to inflate it more, we should be working on makeing those 6 hours a day for 9 months a year more efficient. How about not doing anymore busy work so you're actually learning more often. I Really, I had a tutor when I was out of school, I was able to get a week's worth of work (for two classes... so that would by about 7 hours total) done in an hour. And, while I am faster at learning than most kids, and a good amount of time probably gets cut out by you only waiting if you have a question, but I doubt it would be completely unreasonable to get it to be half a week's worth of. How about makeing science an elective mixed in with any other unecisary class because almost no one uses information they gained in science in their daily life? That way important classes (Math, Language, that class in my school that is just math but concentrated on word problems) get more time.

I think school days should be 6-7 hours long and should start around 9 am. Here in Finland it's pretty much that way, except that school mostly begins at 8, which is a bad thing, because it makes everyone in the building unable to work for a few hours. Don't know how long your days are over where you live, but that's just my idea of an ideal school day.

The school year could be around the year, as long as there are a breaks for a couple every now and then. We have a ten week long summmer holiday and that is almost a bit too long. Having an almost continuous year would probably help you keep focused on subjects, a break too long might actually make you forget what you've learnt, making revision necessary to waste good learning time.

The word isn't might, the word you were looking for is does.
Studies have shown that after 3 weeks you start to forget information, meaning the first month of school is a reteaching of last years materials.

Some of the local schools do "year round" schooling, they take a month off in December instead of 2 weeks, and 4 weeks in summer instead of 10. They get the rest of their summer break spread out through the year and those schools seem to score better on tests than the rest of the district. Those schools are in the worst neighborhoods in town meaning that it isn't entirely funding that kills schools in poor neighborhoods, it's also teaching styles.

Parents in the US hate year round schools though, because they don't want to have to find people to watch their kids. Schools in the US really aren't much more than government funded daycare centers for kids over 6.

7 hours of torture for 180 days a year is enough.

They still only attend 180 days a year, they just don't have a stupidly long break once a year.

I wish other professions let you do that...Move a lot of my holidays, all my personal days, and any leftover sick days, into one big chunk. I really hate weekends because for 1/2 of the time you can't enjoy yourself because you know you're going to school the next day. The idea of working like my dad (6 day work week) sounds absolutely terrible to me and I'd honestly have a 7 day work week .

Making a longer school year wouldn't do anything except cause more stress. They could already be teaching what they teach in one day in about 3 hours if they had to. I think they should just work on improving the education instead of trying to make kids sit in a classroom for a the whole year.

They could if they didn't have to make sure every moron in class at least gets the basics of what was being taught. As it is, thanks to the no child left behind act, even the special kids have to be able to pass those tests. That means inclusion. Inclusion means those special kids have to be put in normal classes to be taught and retaught at the expense and to the detriment of the other students that are capable of understanding the materials. That's why teachers spend two weeks telling you the same thing over and over and over ad nauseum. That's why you have to take english every year and get taught every year what nouns and verbs are. It's not a teachers' idea, they're just as tired of doing it as the kids are of hearing it. Those things come down from on high, from a "C" average student that wouldn't have gotten into a community college if his daddy didn't have a shit ton of money.

In my school there are 4 levels of classes and that doesn't happen , yet we still learn and re-learn retarded shit.

Anyway, year-around schooling and uniforms--bring 'em on. I think it would be beneficial.

How the hell are uniforms beneficial?

PS: also, I think something that everyone would enjoy that wouldn't be as controversial that is a better use of the money than an extra 3 months in school, get air conditioners everywhere. I can't do work well if I'm hot and sweaty.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

Fuck no. Y'all should adopt the Italian style of school years.

From the 15th of September to the 6th of June, from 8:20 in the morning to 12:20 in the afternoon with three months holidays in the summer.

Aah, Viva Life!

OO OOOOOOOO I agree we should do that

 

[ace_of_something]

I live in a rural state so they will never do that here. Kids actually DO help bring in the crops for the harvest in the summer.

Besides my spouse is a teacher and I love it when she has the summer off cuz i have to do almost NO housework (save for all the yard work but I still am coming out ahead).

 

[Lord George]

Anyway, year-around schooling and uniforms--bring 'em on. I think it would be beneficial.

How the hell are uniforms beneficial?

1. They cut down on kids being bullied because they don't keep up with the latest fashion/don't have enough money to buy nice clothes, also stops people diving into different groups based on the style of clothing they choose, and so no one gets discriminated against.

2. They give a clear divide between being in school and being out of school, when your in school you wear the uniform and you obey the school rules, when your not wearing the uniform you are outside the schools rules and can do what you want.

3.It hands the teachers more authority over the students as they are separated by the clothing they wear and stand out along with the fact that they have more privileges then they students by not wearing uniform i.e. they are not equal, with the teacher being in charge.

4. It teaches students to be individual in the way they think and act rather then on how they dress.

I think this could be one of the reasons that American schools are so bad (well from what I've been told by friends), in that they don't differentiate much between when your in school and when you out of it, the 3 month long summer break they have also doesn't help with this as they can't really get into the structure of the school system if they keep being separated from it for such a long period of time each year, a longer school year with shorter holidays could help things.

 

[Ancientgamer]

6 weeks summer holiday is what we have in the UK. How long is the holdiay for kids in the US?

it varies, but usually around 3 months. So 12 weeks.

Seriously, what the hell Britain?

 

[mike1921]

Anyway, year-around schooling and uniforms--bring 'em on. I think it would be beneficial.

How the hell are uniforms beneficial?

1. They cut down on kids being bullied because they don't keep up with the latest fashion/don't have enough money to buy nice clothes, also stops people diving into different groups based on the style of clothing they choose, and so no one gets discriminated against.

2. They give a clear divide between being in school and being out of school, when your in school you wear the uniform and you obey the school rules, when your not wearing the uniform you are outside the schools rules and can do what you want.

3.It hands the teachers more authority over the students as they are separated by the clothing they wear and stand out along with the fact that they have more privileges then they students by not wearing uniform i.e. they are not equal, with the teacher being in charge.

4. It teaches students to be individual in the way they think and act rather then on how they dress.

I think this could be one of the reasons that American schools are so bad (well from what I've been told by friends), in that they don't differentiate much between when your in school and when you out of it, the 3 month long summer break they have also doesn't help with this as they can't really get into the structure of the school system if they keep being separated from it for such a long period of time each year, a longer school year with shorter holidays could help things.

1: maybe that was an issue in your school, but in mine unless you're wearing something so ridiculous that you're purposely wearing something that might get you picked on it won't effect you. Even then it's not a big deal, just a joke or two. With the exception of ridiculous shit that'll get you kicked out of school.

2: If you're in school you know it.

3: Wtf are you saying?

4: No, it just teaches them not to be individual in the way they dress. Besides, the students already are individual enough. Atleast in my school, there is not a single person there who isn't an individual, a good proportion of said individuals are dickheads, but they're still individual.

What do you mean they don't differentiate much between when you're in school and out of it? For one you're doing work and waiting to get out, and as scary as this is to believe, they're more behaved for the most part (yes, we get worse after we're out, scary thought, I know) for the other you're free.


Also, I would be completely screwed for atleast 1/3 of the year if I was wearing a uniform because I can't concentrate on shit when I'm restricted by clothes and sweating.

 

[Pimppeter2]

No. I only have 2 something months to see all my relatives in a far country.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

That would suck. i already hate school, to make it longer would probably drive many kids to "phase out" and just stop paying attention in class, so I doubt it would help grades or anything.

Kids do that anyway, increasing the length of the school year would just piss them off.

 

[SnowCold]

YEs you should, you have 2 days off every week, you SHOULD have longer school time!

 

[mike1921]

i think they should have better education rather than longer school years.

As a high-school senior, I can say this. I'm supposedly one of the best in my year, and longer years would kill me. Better to have teachers/lessons kids actually pay attention to, rather than keeping them in an extra two hours.

As I discovered in high-school, a teacher you can have a laugh with and trys to make the lesson interesting helps far more than the "read a book" rubbish some teachers try to force you to do.

This times a thousand

 

[nash_clovis]

IMHO, we should have a slightly longer school year, with a shorter break in between. Not year round or anything, because the break is necessary so you don't have overworked kids.

If you have a longer school year, that means that you have more time to go over what you have to before the end of the year, which means that (theoretically) either the kids understand the material a little better (if they've been paying attention. There was some brought up about the kids not wanting to learn. Really, it's their fault. The school system shouldn't be trimmed simply because it doesn't interest one set of kids. Whether it happens or not is up to the teacher's discretion.), or you've spent the normal amount of time on a subject and you've found time to cover more than what was required.

 

[Raregolddragon]

We don't need more school we need higher quality of school's.

 

[mike1921]

IMHO, we should have a slightly longer school year, with a shorter break in between. Not year round or anything, because the break is necessary so you don't have overworked kids.

If you have a longer school year, that means that you have more time to go over what you have to before the end of the year, which means that (theoretically) either the kids understand the material a little better (if they've been paying attention. There was some brought up about the kids not wanting to learn. Really, it's their fault. The school system shouldn't be trimmed simply because it doesn't interest one set of kids. Whether it happens or not is up to the teacher's discretion.), or you've spent the normal amount of time on a subject and you've found time to cover more than what was required.

These concepts are so simple they're scary. Everyone knows it's more time to cover material or cover more material. No one is debateing that because it's obvious.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

We don't need more school we need higher quality of school's.

How? You can't magically make schools a higher quality when the budget is extremely low. But, just getting better teachers is a problem in itself, some kids just refuse to pay attention and learn. But, if you're in normal classes I doubt a better teacher will help any at all because of the fact most of the class is pandering to different way kids can learn things and teaching the curriculum. I don't mind most of my teachers for honor and 'gifted' of sorts classes, most CAN teach a class very well, but from what my years in middle school have told me is that the kids are the main problem in teaching.

 

[IronicBeet]

We get roughly 8 weeks break from 6 and a half hour days here in Canada.

 

[mike1921]

We don't need more school we need higher quality of school's.

How? You can't magically make schools a higher quality when the budget is extremely low. But, just getting better teachers is a problem in itself, some kids just refuse to pay attention and learn. But, if you're in normal classes I doubt a better teacher will help any at all because of the fact most of the class is pandering to different way kids can learn things and teaching the curriculum. I don't mind most of my teachers for honor and 'gifted' of sorts classes, most CAN teach a class very well, but from what my years in middle school have told me is that the kids are the main problem in teaching.

Allocate more money to getting better teachers who know how to make kids shut the hell up. It's not a problem with the students, every class I go to the students act completely different when the teacher's in the room. Sure, there are a few that are unfixable or whatever but those are rare. Don't make the rules for getting a suspension (that goes on your permanent record, making you look bad) schizophrenic. I threw a grape at a kid to get his attention and would've got a suspension if the vice principal didn't like me enough to turn it into 5 lunch detentions, you don't get a suspension for fighting unless you bring a weapon. Also, no more making it so the only people in the school with air conditioning are the ones with the lowest grades. That pisses me off to no end -_- .

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

Im from Australia actually.