fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

A town in Colorado has switched to a four day school week: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/four-day-school-week-teachers-kids-give-it-parents-are-n1009506 Apparently, this is not an isolated trend.

Students love it because it means more play time or more part-time job hours, teachers love it because, basically, they feel they're only paid for about a four day week and school districts like it because it saves them money but parents aren't too happy because it means an extra day of after-school care (ie they see school as a daycare service).

At a time when American kids trail just about every industrialized country's students in math, sciences and reading our response is, "Hey; let's have our kids spend less time in the classroom..." Is it just me or is this trend kinda going in the wrong direction just for the sake of convenience or to save a few bucks? Can someone explain how this improves our kids' educational levels?

PCB_smv

It doesn’t improve it at all. We need more time in the classroom, not less. We are getting more and more behind.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Wrong direction. Teachers probably have more overall impact educational and behaivorial than is realized/appreciated in the growth and development of our children. Poorly paid and often berated. Some are excellent role models as well. We can stand up for the education of our children, decent living wage for our teachers, or we can let them kick the teachers to the curb and dumb us down into a giant herd of sheep. Your right, many don't see the beauty of a good education, and do think of it as daycare.

Mike Fos Loc: Powhatan Virginia

I think that one of the big problems is not the teachers but the education establishment that is following the progressive agenda. For example when my daughter had history in high school they spent a huge amount of World War II history on Japanese internment but very little on the actual war. The rest of the problem is every kid gets a trophy mentality.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Japanese internment? How about treatment of American POW's held bt the Japanese. American prisoners were beaten, tortured, burned to death with gasoline and occasionally eaten by the Japanese, thta's right. They were eaten.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

If only the reporting of history and the implementation of education could be centered down the middle, no right wing/no left wing slant, no racial or ethnic slants, just the truth. Children can decide which way they want to lean when they have matured and can make use of teachings. Re-writing history seems to be even trendier now when a new right or left wing set of politicos are in place. With folks living longer and longer, it is easy to garner witnesses to most/all modern events (wars or otherwise) and record some measure of what truly has happened. Re-writing history to divide us is criminal in my mind, but seems very popular these days, by both sides (left and right). My $.02

pendennis

Classroom education is vital. However, it can only be one part of the overall education of a child. Children start learning at birth. Parents should be reading to children and teaching them to read as soon as they're able to learn.

Kids need to be prepared at home for school. They can't be sent for education without a home base first.

We also need to change the model for education. The Dewey/Prussian model, still used, needs to abandoned in favor of the way Socrates taught. The teacher needs to be in the position of a mentor, among others, and he/she needs to be there for more than one "school year". Smaller class sizes, on the order of 5-6 students would be ideal; no more than 8. This concept comes from a person's ability to manage others. Encourage children to challenge each other in order to learn. Encourage independent research; find out just how eager they are to learn.

Eliminate the "grade" level concept. Children can't learn on an annual calendar. Some learn very quickly, others not so much. Bring in specialists in deeper subjects such as advanced math, science, history, etc. They should be subject matter experts, not necessarily teachers; and they need to be able to communicate to the student, a must. Those subjects need to be taught in the same way as the basic stuff, by ability to learn among peers. Peer-to-peer is the best way to learn.

Eliminate numeric grades for at least three years. Kids need to socialize to learn, not regurgitate "See Dick and Jane run." Grading should come later, but is essential for preparing the student for adulthood, when grading and competition are important.

Finally, privatize the entire process. Education is something that government has totally botched. Too much bureaucracy, too top-heavy, to repressing. Parents can decide just who should teach their kids, not a fat, overstaffed bureaucracy.

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

NOOOO do not privatize education!!!!!!The UK has 'created' Private/public academies. They are underfunded, the buildings are allowed to fall apart and there is little scrutiny of teaching apart from annual result tables.Run as a business they charge parents for all sorts of things yet do not have any 'credence' of being any better than state schools.

We have problems with entry classes having to teach toileting and dressing!! Little or no input by parents - who in recent years have been considered 'interfering' when they asked the awkward questions about 'progress'. The Gvmt keeps changing the goal posts and teachers are having to 're-apply' for their jobs annually (so no incremental wage increase nor status).

It is against the law 'not to send your children to school' in the UK, yet the schools can send your child home for a host of reasons and for an indefinite time!Their main excuse is 'disruption'...teachers no longer have the authority to deal with this.

'Home schooling' has no 'status' because your child cannot easily attain recognized qualifications. THIS should be changed.....There should be a free or minimal cost to entry to 'sitting exams'. WHY are children only allowed a personal 'identity' when they reach 'Teenage'. Education has become too exclusive.

pendennis

Privatization is the only option, with parents making the determination as to who teaches their children, how they're paid, and how long they hold that position.

Government-run education is completely non-competitive; and there's no option within the public sector; only to transfer to another public school. Public education is an incestuous beast at best. It's fed off public money with no accountability for the outcome.

In general, private schools, whether private academies, or religious-funded models, excel over their public counterparts. If public education had to compete, instead of feeding off the public teat, it would improve yesterday. Let parents take the tax dollars, pro rata, and fund private schools. We'd see just how fast the public model would improve, or how quickly it would die.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

As a retired teacher I think it is not too little class time but too many mandated "subject of the moment" required things, often in the category of just plain "junk".
Add on the low level of basic skills (3rd grade reading level in a 10th grade World History class) and study habits in general. I spent about a months worth of each school year at the high school level teaching reading, writing (Teacher, what's an essay?) research skills, using a dictionary and how to study.

But boy did they have high artificial self esteem they had been taught at the lower grades. A lot of them felt great about nothing much and had the trophies, ribbons and certificates to prove it.

I had one "Gifted" kid's parents come to school and complain that I gave vocabulary quizzes* which were a waste of time and beneath "Gifted" students like their son. (This was the mother, the father just sat quietly and watched to see what happened.) The administrator at the meeting turned to me and asked about that (she knew me and knew I could justify it). I pulled out the grade book and pointed out his average grade on the vocabulary quizzes was a D+/C- and I had the one he took the day before with me - it was an 'F'. The mother didn't have another word to say and the father just shook his head and gave the son one of those "You are going to study and work harder." looks. The Amin asked "Didn't you also have questions about the basic study skills lessons?" The mother mumbled "No, they aren't important."

*the vocabulary was all history, geography, government specific words

DJ Mills Loc: Idaho

In grad school, a wise old prof told us that the quickest way to guess a student's relative IQ was to listen to the vocabulary of the student's mother.

Rich2236 Loc: E. Hampstead, New Hampshire

IT DOESN'T !!!
And yet, some of the powers that be, (ie: Democrat congressmen/women) want to lower the voting age to 16 !!!!!!!!!
Rich...

cbabcock

"Hey; let's have our kids spend less time in the classroom..." Is it just me or is this trend kinda going in the wrong direction just for the sake of convenience or to save a few bucks? Can someone explain how this improves our kids' educational levels?

Reading the article, I note that there is just as much time spent in the classroom.

cbabcock

Privatization of schools is just another way for the private sector to divert money from the educational effort into the pockets of the capitalists. Charter schools pay big bucks to big business for curriculum. Those businesses make the decisions about what is taught and how, and it's mostly conservative thought. DeVos is pushing for more money to be diverted into big business, doesn't care about actual education.

cbabcock

Many 16 year olds show better knowledge of actual facts than the supporters of the current president.