Obama says school year should be longer - States disagree

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]

[QUOTE="Stanley09"] Parents availability to kids should not be considered in school time hours. The vast majority of students have the capability to get picked up/bus/walk/get ride from friend homeStanley09

.. I disagree.. The poor have numerous problems in this area, furthermore this excludes kids who are below high school that need to have some one watch them.

The fact of the matter the parent has to work 60 hour weeks alot of times for support? And schools do not have the funds to properly fund such programs often times.. Its a really hard issue to consider.. Especially when some schools are falling apart and have literally no funds.

No. He's probably doing this for all the drop out rates or the high stupidity our schools have. Making school days longer wont solve it. Its the kids attitude. Seriously i HATE school but i still go there and get my grades. While all the other kids dont give a sh**. THey sit there talking to their firends across the room yelling profanty and other crap. Seriously just today, we were told to do this practice sheet and we would go over it in 15 mins. I did it while all the freaking " bad-as*es" sat there doing nothing saying why would we do this if we're going over it? I'm like ugh so when we take the test we can do it on our own. And then i love how those kids ask for the teacher to take grades on easy assignments cause they " need points" because they never do the " harder" assignments when a freaking 6th grader could do. ( im in 11th). God i hate my school.

/rant

[QUOTE="xaos"]I'm unsurprised that the states are opposed, considering that it would cost a lot more. I think that the government is only a relatively small part of the solution to US education woes. To me, the real problem is the attitude of disdain toward education that is so deeply embedded in our culture.comp_atkins

[QUOTE="Stanley09"][QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]

.. I disagree.. The poor have numerous problems in this area, furthermore this excludes kids who are below high school that need to have some one watch them.

The fact of the matter the parent has to work 60 hour weeks alot of times for support? And schools do not have the funds to properly fund such programs often times.. Its a really hard issue to consider.. Especially when some schools are falling apart and have literally no funds.

I think it could help. They don't necessarily have to increase the number of days, but they could increase the daily hours. Tauruslink

I think that there are quality issues of education that need to be addressed with the quantity. I suppose that I don't oppose longer school years though. More education over the long haul, and less loss from summer down time.

Longer days? I dunno. Might remove necessary time for kids to unwind.

I think that there are quality issues of education that need to be addressed with the quantity. I suppose that I don't oppose longer school years though. More education over the long haul, and less loss from summer down time.

Longer days? I dunno. Might remove necessary time for kids to unwind.

coolbeans90

I really don't understand how anyone can have disdain for education and not make an effort to succeed in school. Do they think working manual labor and getting paid $18k a year makes them cool?

I think that standards need to be brought up,the school year needs to be longer,summer vacation needs to be much shorter and a larger focus on the core elements of education is needed. In my high school, we had a lot of stupid cl@sses that people would take because they knew they were easy. Having thought it over, I do think our students would benefit greatly from a longer school year. I noticed a lot of history classes I was in almost never covered anything past World War II because the teachers simply ran out of time. We ended up skimming over nearly every modern war the United States has been in. This didn't particularly affect me because I do a lot of independent learning,but the students in that class probably graduated with barely any knowledge of what happened in Korea,Vietnam,Lebanon,Grenada,Panama,Iraq,etc. That is a pretty frightening prospect that we have young people with virtually no knowledge of what happened in the last 60 years.

Another Part of the problem is schools are holding students hands too much. If a student isn't catching on to the material being learned then he or she needs to be held back. We aren't doing kids any favors by inflating grades or passing them based on effort.

**It should be noted that my experience in an AP History class was much better**

[QUOTE="coolbeans90"]

I think that there are quality issues of education that need to be addressed with the quantity. I suppose that I don't oppose longer school years though. More education over the long haul, and less loss from summer down time.

Longer days? I dunno. Might remove necessary time for kids to unwind.

LJS9502_basic

I really don't understand how anyone can have disdain for education and not make an effort to succeed in school. Do they think working manual labor and getting paid $18k a year makes them cool?

I think that standards need to be brought up,the school year needs to be longer,summer vacation needs to be much shorter and a larger focus on the core elements of education is needed. In my high school, we had a lot of stupid cl@sses that people would take because they knew they were easy. Having thought it over, I do think our students would benefit greatly from a longer school year. I noticed a lot of history classes I was in almost never covered anything past World War II because the teachers simply ran out of time. We ended up skimming over nearly every modern war the United States has been in. This didn't particularly affect me because I do a lot of independent learning,but the students in that class probably graduated with barely any knowledge of what happened in Korea,Vietnam,Lebanon,Grenada,Panama,Iraq,etc. That is a pretty frightening prospect that we have young people with virtually no knowledge of what happened in the last 60 years.

Another Part of the problem is schools are holding students hands too much. If a student isn't catching on to the material being learned then he or she needs to be held back. We aren't doing kids any favors by inflating grades or passing them based on effort.

**It should be noted that my experience in an AP History class was much better**

I really don't understand how anyone can have disdain for education and not make an effort to succeed in school. Do they think working manual labor and getting paid $18k a year makes them cool? UnknownSniper65

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"][QUOTE="coolbeans90"]

I think that there are quality issues of education that need to be addressed with the quantity. I suppose that I don't oppose longer school years though. More education over the long haul, and less loss from summer down time.

Longer days? I dunno. Might remove necessary time for kids to unwind.

-Sun_Tzu-

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]

I really don't understand how anyone can have disdain for education and not make an effort to succeed in school. Do they think working manual labor and getting paid $18k a year makes them cool?

I think that standards need to be brought up,the school year needs to be longer,summer vacation needs to be much shorter and a larger focus on the core elements of education is needed. In my high school, we had a lot of stupid cl@sses that people would take because they knew they were easy. Having thought it over, I do think our students would benefit greatly from a longer school year. I noticed a lot of history classes I was in almost never covered anything past World War II because the teachers simply ran out of time. We ended up skimming over nearly every modern war the United States has been in. This didn't particularly affect me because I do a lot of independent learning,but the students in that class probably graduated with barely any knowledge of what happened in Korea,Vietnam,Lebanon,Grenada,Panama,Iraq,etc. That is a pretty frightening prospect that we have young people with virtually no knowledge of what happened in the last 60 years.

Another Part of the problem is schools are holding students hands too much. If a student isn't catching on to the material being learned then he or she needs to be held back. We aren't doing kids any favors by inflating grades or passing them based on effort.

**It should be noted that my experience in an AP History class was much better**

Stanley09

It may have just been my high school. For some stupid reason they taught American history from 1776-1990 and it was simply too much to teach in one year. My school always ranked highly because they focused so much on math,science,writing and reading. Figures they would completely screw over their history classes by bulking them together.

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"] I don't understand the summer argument TBH. I never had a problem with it.LJS9502_basic

It is possible to forget things after you learned them. I can use myself as an example of this; I used to play trumpet for my school band. I wasn't great at it, but I knew what I was doing. That was quite some time ago, and I can't play trumpet anymore at all. I also was once able to read hebrew pretty well, nowadays I don't think I'd be able to even recite the alphabet let alone actually read something in hebrew. A more relevant example is my experiences with math; I remember by the end of my senior year in high school I could derive, integrate, and optimize with the best of 'em, and later that fall I had some real difficulties with math when we were covering things that earlier that year I was great at.

I did not cram the night before to memorize these skill sets for a test, I understood these things at a conceptual level - I learned them. But if you don't continue to study and reinforce what you know, you're not going to know what you know for a long period of time.

As others had said before, we need better schools, not longer schools, although longer schools would help a few AP classes that struggle to fit everything in in the year they are given.

[QUOTE="coolbeans90"]

I think that there are quality issues of education that need to be addressed with the quantity. I suppose that I don't oppose longer school years though. More education over the long haul, and less loss from summer down time.

Longer days? I dunno. Might remove necessary time for kids to unwind.

LJS9502_basic

Might just be me, but normally I tend to retain very little knowledge from school during the summer.

What does the rest of the industrialized world do? We should be on par with that.

If we stop giving teachers ridiculous benefits, maybe we could afford getting more teachers and improving schools. Just a thought.

Sorry but quanity wont ensure quality. By far.

Why do people always answer with "more" when they think things arent good, in stead of considering that perhaps its the quality that should be taken care of?

Such simplistic equations wont get anyone (or any nation) very far.

I disagree with Obama.

I disagree with Obama.

Teenaged

:shock:

I think I just had a coronary.

I think we need to make people want to learn and make good grades. The people who really bring us down are the ones who just don't give a ****.

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

I disagree with Obama.

airshocker

:shock:

I think I just had a coronary.

We need to put finding on a state or federal level to make sure all schools recieve some minimal level of funding. Teachers should be moved around by the states to where they are needed. Days should be extened as well as hours.

If we stop giving teachers ridiculous benefits, maybe we could afford getting more teachers and improving schools. Just a thought.

airshocker

How in the name of all that is good and holy would that help? I could be wrong, but teaching (particularly at the public-school level) has never struck me as a particularly well-compensated profession.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the US and Canada follow very similar school schedules, yet Canada generally does quite well in international education rankings (particularly when it comes to math and science). Obviously it isn't an apples to apples comparison (different demographics and such), but lengthening the school year seems like it should be more of an absolute last-resort (as others have said, spending more time in a broken system isn't necessarily going to improve the result).

How biased did (or "do") you think I am?! :x

Teenaged

Just picking on you. :)

[QUOTE="airshocker"]

If we stop giving teachers ridiculous benefits, maybe we could afford getting more teachers and improving schools. Just a thought.

PBSnipes

How in the name of all that is good and holy would that help?

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the US and Canada follow very similar school schedules, yet Canada generally does quite well in international education rankings (particularly when it comes to math and science). Obviously it isn't an apples to apples comparison (different demographics and such), but lengthening the school year seems like it should be more of an absolute last-resort (as others have said, spending more time in a broken system isn't necessarily going to improve the result).

To the canadians, how well is your education funded and on what level is it funded?

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

How biased did (or "do") you think I am?! :x

airshocker

Just picking on you. :)

Or else you'd get the ":|" smiley. :P

How in the name of all that is good and holy would that help? I could be wrong, but teaching (particularly at the public-school level) has never struck me as a particularly well-compensated profession.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the US and Canada follow very similar school schedules, yet Canada generally does quite well in international education rankings (particularly when it comes to math and science). Obviously it isn't an apples to apples comparison (different demographics and such), but lengthening the school year seems like it should be more of an absolute last-resort (as others have said, spending more time in a broken system isn't necessarily going to improve the result).

PBSnipes

Because in my area(NY and NJ) teachers are given absolutely ridiculous benefits that they don't have to pay for. EVER. Ridiculous pensions and ridiculous healthcare and dental. It's a major drain on the state economy and is one of the major reasons why both states had to take chainsaws to their budgets.

The Teacher's union has a stranglehold on both of those states. They don't care about the students, only about themselves. We need to make it about the students.

Yeah got that.

Or else you'd get the ":|" smiley. :P

Teenaged

Oh, I don't want that smiley. :P

No. I'm not having my saturdays and sundays gone. If they take away my saturdays i would be pissed, would demand them back and wouldn't give up ever. Might even start a strike but i would still go to school. If they take away my sundays all hell will break loose. At most i would allow 30 days. Any more then that and i'm dropping out tommorow. Also for hours at most 2 1/2 hours.

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

I disagree with Obama.

airshocker

:shock:

I think I just had a coronary.

Longer school days and years won't improve education. If anything. it'll make it worse. It's such a chore going to school for 40 hours a week and having to do homework everyday. Teaching methods aren't effective anymore. The way the American school system works is you get taught a lot of material within a certain time period for the test and then afterward, the material is irrelevant and never used again. We don't learn, we memorize until the test and then forget about it.Rez89x

No, it's already long enough. Maybe Obama should worry about the war and the horrible econemy instead of worrying about something he has no control over.

Well how long does he want to extend it to? So long as it isn't extensive it's kind of OK, if it increases my school day by like three hours so I'm coming home at 5:30 that wouldn't be good.

I say we let all the kids vote on it. After all, it's them being affected and it's a perfect exercise in democracy for the youth of America.

To the canadians, how well is your education funded and on what level is it funded?

Former_Slacker

The most recent article I was able to find says Canada spends 6.1% of GDP on education (as compared to an OECD average of 5.7% and the US at 7.6%) as of 2006.

I'm not sure which level of government is primarily responsible for funding (I'd assume it's a mix of all three), but the Provinces are generally the one's calling the shots.

Also, it seems (according to wikipedia, anyway) that Canada does have ~190 school year as opposed to the US's ~180, for whatever that 10 day difference is worth.

[QUOTE="airshocker"]

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

I disagree with Obama.

Xx_Hopeless_xX

:shock:

I think I just had a coronary.

I had to wipe my eyes so I could see my monitor.:lol:

[QUOTE="Rez89x"]Longer school days and years won't improve education. If anything. it'll make it worse. It's such a chore going to school for 40 hours a week and having to do homework everyday. Teaching methods aren't effective anymore. The way the American school system works is you get taught a lot of material within a certain time period for the test and then afterward, the material is irrelevant and never used again. We don't learn, we memorize until the test and then forget about it.warownslife

I already spend too much of my time in school thank you very much Mr. Obama.

Hope not. Obama making too many changes too fast.

[QUOTE="warownslife"]

[QUOTE="Rez89x"]Longer school days and years won't improve education. If anything. it'll make it worse. It's such a chore going to school for 40 hours a week and having to do homework everyday. Teaching methods aren't effective anymore. The way the American school system works is you get taught a lot of material within a certain time period for the test and then afterward, the material is irrelevant and never used again. We don't learn, we memorize until the test and then forget about it.Rez89x