Extending School Hours/Days - My Response

After hearing Obama's recommendation to extend the amount of time that children spend in school, I had a few thoughts about a few points that he mentioned.

• Increase the number of and access to after school programs. I think this would be a great idea for coomunities to consider. Too many times students, especially adolescents, spend time finding something else to do after school.  They may not be interested in extra-curricular activities that would require them to stay at school longer, but would be willing to get involved with community-based activities such as the YMCA or Boys and Girls Club. Additionally, these programs should not be the only ones offerred in low-income areas as they currently are.

• Increase the length of the school day.  This sounds like a great idea. I mean, how often do you hear, 'there just aren't enough hours in the day,' or 'if I had just one more hour, I can do so much more.' While this may be true, it is not a successful strategy on its own. In addition to (or maybe even instead of) extending the length of day programs, it's necessary to recognize the importance of adequate and sufficient resources and manpower to attend to the ever-increasing standards and objectives that students are expected to learn and teachers are expected to teach.

As a teacher, I think that adding additional time to the school calendar whether it's in the form of longer school days, longer school weeks, or a longer school year would be a step in the right direction to increasing and improving the learning of students in our country.  However, the demands continue to increase, expectations are on the rise, and resources and manpower are on the decline. For our educational system to be more effective, it is important that it functions as a more streamlined, well-oiled machine.  The current problem is that schools are expected to function and progress full speed ahead but our tank is only half full...or half empty, depending on how you look at it.

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