Kids Won't Like This One

President Obama this week expressed his support for an idea that has been tossed around quite a bit in recent years. He would like to see either the school day or the school year extended in the hopes of making our students more competitive with those of other nations. He specifically brought up the fact that South Korean students are in school for a month longer than our students. He also would like to see merit pay for good teachers, something Republicans have supported for years and naturally the unions have opposed. Those of us looking for bipartisanship are pretty happy about Obama's plan in that regard.

There has certainly been concern since No Child Left Behind was passed that teachers spend too much time "teaching to the test" and not enough time making sure the students are actually learning what they need to learn in order to be successful in life. And it's an oft-repeated fact that American children are lagging far behind those of other nations when it comes to reading, math, and science. Extending the school year won't necessarily fix the institutional problems in our education system, but at the basic level, it may be a help.

It would also go a long way toward fixing another recent problem with our children: obesity. The trend has been blamed partially on the lack of physical education in schools. Recess has been getting eliminated nationwide, replaced by mandatory PE in some cases. That makes no sense to me... what do kids mostly do during recess most of the year? They play, they run around and play and have fun. This is getting replaced by mandatory games run by a gym teacher, and besides the fact that some kids might not want to play whatever the teacher wants, studies have shown that some free time on the playground helps kids with ADD/ADHD. Why can't we do both and still have time for all the subjects? A longer school year could accomplish that because you would have more time to teach everything. This is truly a win-win for teachers and kids... that is, once we got the kids to accept having to go to school longer.

Which reminds us that of course this longer school year idea doesn't come without its problems. Obama referred to the fact that our present school calendar comes from a bygone era where children were needed on the farm to tend to the fields and the crops come summer time so they got the summer off. That may be true, but as America progressed and advanced through the last century, new traditions emerged that made our school year just as sensible. Our nation's vacation and tourism industry pretty much relies on the kids being off for the summer. There's also the issue of being at school during the summer heat waves. Being from New York, I went to school later in the year than most kids in this country. We had our finals in mid-June, and let me tell you there is nothing like being in a sweltering hot gymnasium taking your Regents exams with a couple hundred other students and only strategically-placed fans in each corner to keep you cool. They're gonna have to find a way to keep everyone from suffering heat stroke before they can really make this happen.

My biggest concern from all this talk of a longer school year is the fact that this will inevitably cost more money. The schools already operate almost year-round in some capacity, because they need janitorial staff and teachers for summer school, but now you'll need to keep cafeteria workers on for longer, and of course teachers may want more money in exchange for giving up part of the summer vacation that THEY love just as much as their students do. At a time where we already are suffering trillion-dollar deficits, how do we pay for this?

Now I know all the kiddies look at this as adults who don't have to go to school anymore who have forgotten what it was like to "suffer" in our K-12 education system... and they're right. If I was a kid, I probably wouldn't like this. But as parents like to say, "We're doing this for your own good." I'm sure they'll enjoy getting their recess back and playing sports... unless their gym teacher tries to do a unit on tai chi with them like mine did. Stroke the peacock's tail... Anyway, I'm all for anything that will make our students and our country more competitive in the world, so bravo to President Obama and I hope he can make this happen... along with the eleventy billion other things he's trying to accomplish all at once.