President Obama is urging educators to re-evaluate the current set-up for schools and instruction time. He believes that kids in the U.S. spend too little time in school when compared to those students around the world who score better on tests. It is his contention that both the school day and the school calendar needs to be lengthened.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_us/us_more_school
Do you agree with President Obama? Is this a necessary change? Would it make a difference in terms of learning / retention of information? (due 10/2)
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I believe that what President Obama is thinking is right. Although, the way we compare to other schools around the world, it's just around the same amount of time inside the classroom. So in fact, I believe that this is not a necessary change. If this were to happen, it "could" make a difference in learning, but the impact of more school days may not be significant.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that President Obama means well and has only the best in mind for our futures. He just wants the best for our generation educational wise, but what about our time out of school for homework, sports, clubs, and jobs? If we lengthen the school days then that will just make students stay up later and would be too tired to even retain the knowledge that we get from school. Students would get out of school have to go straight to practice, then clubs and jobs, and late at night is when students would have time to do homework. This idea would make our generation an over worked mess. Obama is thinking in the right direction, but he needs a different plan than that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jardx07. I believe that Obama has everything in our best interest. But also kids have another life besides school. After school we have clubs sports and jobs. We would be able to live a seperate life besides school. Also I believe that I dont think it is the ammount time that we spend in school. I believe that what the main problem is, is the way we spend our time we already have in school. Also the teachers may have a influence on our tests scores too. So personally I do not think that this would be such a good idea,.
ReplyDeleteI think Obama just wants to better the school system, but it is unfair that a kid goes to school all his life and has summer vacation and then suddenly has to go to school year round. I agree with Becca; we have seperate lives besides school. It's not the ammount of time spent in the classroom, its the curriculum. If we could stop wasting our time learning useless things and enforcing broader studies, then maybe children would be more motivated to become more studious. "When am I ever gonna use this?" Every student has said this at least once in their school career. If we weren't learning useless information, then schools around the nation would be better.
ReplyDeleteI think that President Obama is not fully thinking this through. We spend the same amount of time in school as any other country does. I also don’t think he is thinking of what a longer school day and more days in school will do. If teens think that school is too hard, then they will drop out. Also, if the day is made longer, then teens will naturally feel the erge to be rebels and either protest, not participate, or even drop out of school entirely. Human nature is to take the path of least resistance, and I fear that that is exactly what teens will do.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with Obama. I believe longer school days will make us not want to go to school even more. Longer school days would also make us more tired and our grades could drop. I believe its a good thought, it just wouldn't work. I do agree with Jessie, he was just thinking for the students and how we could succeed, but it would be for the better if things just stayed the same.
ReplyDeleteI believe that president Obama has a lot of pressure on him right now, and i fully respect that..however if one looks more closely on the matter in america we go to school longer than across seas. I understand that he wants the students of america to do better, but forcing us to bend and be more like other countries is not the right path. Maybe there are other ways to accomplish this but i feel that spending more time in school will have no effect. It is the students desire to retain the knowledge, not the amount of time they were present.
ReplyDeleteI believe that presedant obama has many other things to worry about such as health care and the Iran nuclear progam and should worry about those things first. Once he finishes the problems that we are facing currently, I believe he then should look at the educational problems and how to fix them. I also belive tha presedant Obama should not extend the school day because we go to school juat about the same time the school to in the european and asia countries.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that President Obama is trying to do what he think is the right thing but I dont agree with it because as everyone else has commented I believe that the hours we put into school now are plenty. We have other things and events to do after school, for example, work, clubs, sports, and time to just relax from our busy lives. I believe that by making children go to school longer will just make things worst because life will get stressfull and more complicated than it already is. Even for the parents who have to find time to get their children where they need to be and also find time for dinner and bonding. I don't think this is a necessary need. I think he could find more important things for the United States to worry about. I also don't believe that the more time we have in school will make a difference because i believe that children will get so worn out of school they'll start giving up.
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ReplyDeletePresident Obama is like every other adult. They want what is best for the children. But what about us, do we get a say. The only adult i know that this upset with this setup is a mom, whose daughter went back to schools the second week of August. To many people they do not see the second week of August normal. But in reality we start that week every year. As Genna Baker said, if a kid is in school for too long then they will get tired of school and give up. I don't think that that will happen for say, but i believe that kids will procrastinate more. Kids need extracaricular activities, like school sports or academic teams. If they take that away then a kid will not be happy, because we are used to growing up with sports. I believe that if he changes the school year, then we will be hated by a lot of people. Especially the coaches who love to coach, and its their life, and job.
ReplyDeleteI think that Obama is stupid for thinking that American kids will learn more if we have longer days and longer school year. As a student I know that our day already seems like it takes forever. Also I believe that I would learn more with shorter and more to the point classes. If you stretch out the time that students are supposed to be learning it just wears on our patience and we stop caring all together. If Obama wishes to lengthen both the school day and year I think our scores will be worse than they normally are. Also there will be more and more drop outs in the country because of this change.
ReplyDeleteNo, I think that if kids were forced to go to school longer they would pay less attention. They would be mad and probably not try as hard. The government shouldn't eliminate weekends and breaks just to get ahead on test scores. They should rather just restructure how things are taught.
ReplyDeleteI think President Obama is doing his best to run this nation. I believe however he is inaccurate when it comes to this issue. Students have plenty of time in school, we have achieved more than most countries hope to accomplish. There may be schools out there that run longer, but when it comes to the actual classes itself I believe we are far more better than rival nation students.
ReplyDeleteI do understand what President Obama is saying, but i do not agree with him. Lengthening the school years and days would probably have a positive affect on students. However, today we are seeing more and more students dropping out of high schools around the nation. Trying to make students go longer will only cause more students to drop out. I believe that if we stay where we are today, we will eventually see improvements.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with President Obama. I think that if we lengthen the school day and school year, the only thing that will come of it is angry students. If we are behind on test scores compared to other countries, we should change what we are learning, not the amount of time we spend in school. Just because we spend more time in school doesn't necessarily mean our test scores will be better. Plus, other countries actually spend less time in school compared to the United States. Therefore, I don't think that changing the school days would do anything.
ReplyDeleteThe school calendar and the school day have both been lengthened in recent history, and the country has gotten worse. Back when my grandparents and parents were in school the school calendar would end on memorial day and they would go back on labor day. That is three full months of summer break. I believe this would be a terrible move by the government if they passed this. President Obama already can't get most public school children in school now so how is he suppose to get them in school with even longer school days and a longer school year?
ReplyDeleteI believe O'Bama is correct that a lengthened school day would be beneficial to students. Although I would not support extra time in the class room, it would help students learn. The longer a school day is, the better opportunity a student has to learn more. Obviously more class time means more lessons which would help our education system. As a student I would not want the school day to be lengthened, but I do believe it would improve our education system.
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