Children can be irritating—especially your children. That is why the notion of a school year extending 12 months is not completely revolting. But alas, the government is not a baby-sitting service. Not yet. Let's hope not ever.
In the midst of grappling with a scattering of thorny issues, President Barack Obama took time to lend a fatherly hand this week. Your little Jake, it seems, doesn't spend enough time under the gaze of the state. As it turns out, Jake is at a tragic disadvantage when competing against Yuri from Kazakhstan.
If you believe this tale, the administration has an answer for you: Kill summer vacation, and add a few hours to the school day. "Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan claimed. "I want to just level the playing field."
He, generously, wants to level the playing field for your children. Hey, admittedly, I'm not a product of the dazzling Hungarian school system, yet I can't help but wonder: With the pitiful performance of so many of our school systems—Duncan left Chicago's schools with a more than 40 percent dropout rate—doesn't it seem counterintuitive to extend this interaction?
Where, after all, is the evidence that longer days translate into smarter kids?
We will hear all about Sweden, Belgium, and Denmark's longer days and high test scores, but as The Associated Press points out, kids in the U.S. spend more "hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests—Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013)."
In the U.S., we also piddle away more funding per student on education than nearly any other nation in the world. Employing Duncan's decidedly non-Singaporean calculus, this would necessitate a cut in education spending to achieve higher results and "even the playing field."
According to numerous studies, the most consistent indicator and predictor of a child's educational achievement is parental involvement. So while more time in the classroom may be beneficial to kids who lack parental participation, why would the administration peddle an across-the-board policy change that separates all kids from their parents?
If Duncan's theory is true, why do many school districts across this nation attain high standards of excellence with the same funding and a full summer vacation? Why do Asian-American students consistently outscore their counterparts in this country, within the same school systems and with the same class times?
Moreover, shouldn't local parents and educators be the ones making decisions about curricula and scheduling rather than having to adhere to the mandated vagaries of the newest "reform" efforts from Washington? (Some charter and public schools already shorten summer vacations.)
There is, of course, no denying that many school systems in the nation are failing. Students often are trapped in them. They need help ... to get out.
And though it horrifies some among us that Slovenian eighth-graders, on average, are more proficient at algebra than our kids, the Slovenian economy does not reflect this aptitude. Our achievement never has been about math scores. It's about a system that allows productive citizens to thrive. Unlike in nations chock-full of whiz kids, in this country, adults work. Children play.
When we don't work, we import. Surely my kids—if I can afford to send them to college—will be taught by a product of the Indian educational system. I'm cool with that.
But just as certain, the president's advice would hold more weight if he started sending his own children to public schools before mandating that your child be stuck in one during his or her God-given summer vacation.
David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the author of Nanny State. Visit his Web site at www.DavidHarsanyi.com.
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guy in the back row|9.30.09 @ 12:04PM|#
Children can be irritating-especially your children
As a parent, I can confidently say that other children are almost always more annoying than your own children.
DADIODADDY|9.30.09 @ 12:07PM|#
Ah Children, can live with them, can't kill and eat them.
|9.30.09 @ 12:09PM|#
can't kill and eat them.
Dress up like a polar bear.
Tomcat1066|9.30.09 @ 12:11PM|#
You know, my son is one of those kids who would do well in a year round school environment. But I have a serious fucking problem with some dipshit saying we need to change the whole system. My son would do well because he loves to learn. In an environment where other kids went to school year round for the same reason, then it would be great.
But being in school with the thugs that occupy public education today? Oh yeah...that'll help the test scores.
|9.30.09 @ 12:14PM|#
I learned more about the real world in my first year out of school than any other time. Keeping kids in school 144 straight months is a recipe for idiocracy.
lunchstealer|9.30.09 @ 12:14PM|#
In the U.S., we also piddle away more funding per student on education than nearly any other nation in the world. Employing Duncan's decidedly non-Singaporean calculus, this would necessitate a cut in education spending to achieve higher results and "even the playing field."
Is that more funding in real dollars, or is that normalized for median income? Because spending half as much in real dollars in Kazakhstan would be spending a good deal more in terms of percentage of income.
Rich|9.30.09 @ 12:14PM|#
With all due respect, it seems many "school children" are on permanent vacation anyway.
|9.30.09 @ 12:17PM|#
"According to numerous studies, the most consistent indicator and predictor of a child's educational achievement is parental involvement."
Politicians never want to deal with this fact because it amounts to telling the very people who vote them into office that they are doing a bad job at parenting. Instead, the politicians focus on abstract data - hours at school, dollars spent, test scores, etc. That way they can blame the politicians on the other side of the aisle rather than their constituents, which are the people actually responsible.
|9.30.09 @ 12:25PM|#
It's not a smart idea. The top private schools in the country have a shorter school year than the public schools. Improving school systems
has nothing to do with funding, and everything to do with parents and the community.
I guarantee that teachers will not do this for free, so the US will pay the teacher unions more.
Jim|9.30.09 @ 12:28PM|#
If parental involvement is really the most significant factor, why would we want to reduce the time the kids spend with their parents?
My wife stays at home with the kids and she spends a lot of time helping my older daughter with her homework and general school skills. We are partly feeling like for all the time she spends in school the teachers should be helping her more. We have even considered pulling her out and homeschooling her - not for any idiotic reasons like we don't believe in evolution (we do) but because we figure we could teach the same curriculum effectively in 1 or 2 hours a day one on one instead of 6 in a class room setting.
If anything, putting the kids in school longer will reduce parental help with homework because of a) less actual time with the kids, and b) we all figure that more time will improve results so we will be less inclined to use our free time to help with educational matters.
|9.30.09 @ 12:28PM|#
They also don't take into account that lots of kids work after school or during the summer. Some of them to pay for college, some to buy cars and/or pay for gas and insurance. And if kids are at school all the time, when are they going to work to earn money that they spend on all the things they buy? Kids drive the movie industry. Kids spend on music and gadgets. Kids spend on food when they're not at school.
If I were a small business owner in Anytown, USA, I'd not be very happy that my business will lose patronage and my taxes will surely go up to pay for teachers to work more. You know damn well the teachers unions aren't just going to give up their summers without a hefty increase in pay.
The Gobbler|9.30.09 @ 12:29PM|#
"I guarantee that teachers will not do this for free, so the US will pay the teacher unions more."
Bingo!
Anonymous|9.30.09 @ 12:31PM|#
Pol Pot.
That is all.
Frank|9.30.09 @ 12:32PM|#
With all due respect, it seems many "school children" are on permanent vacation anyway.
True, America's schools are infested with drugs. If we want to have smarter kids we need to do a better job of keeping drugs out of schools.
"According to numerous studies, the most consistent indicator and predictor of a child's educational achievement is parental involvement."
We should mandate a certain number of hours per week of parental involvement.
botw|9.30.09 @ 12:32PM|#
A longer school day is a horrible idea. Kids are burned out enough and need time for other activities. Keeping them longer is just to babysit.
Longer school year can work and is being tried in many states. Why the federal gov't feels the need to get involved, however, is beyond me. Why exactly do we need a federal department of education anyway?
Mary|9.30.09 @ 12:35PM|#
If I were a small business owner in Anytown, USA, I'd not be very happy that my business will lose patronage and my taxes will surely go up to pay for teachers to work more.
Good point.
You know damn well the teachers unions aren't just going to give up their summers without a hefty increase in pay.
They need the summer off because it is a very stressful and demanding job. Probably there would be other teachers for the summer.
|9.30.09 @ 12:40PM|#
Let's just take the damn money and give it to parents for each "A" their kid gets. Each individual parent will have to figure out for themselves how many hits on the crack pipe they can get for each "A".
|9.30.09 @ 12:51PM|#
The REAL problem in our school system is that they waste valuable class time with useless classes and other bullshit (trust me, just left high school). Instead of focusing on, say, math or science, we're forced to take electives: shitty classes that are irrelevant to our interests (for instance, Sociology). On top of that, the main focus is on English which is stupid because everyone knows how to write, and Math and History are more important. Then, of course, some schools like to focus on Sports, the stupidest of stupid ideas, because it teaches the kids to value physicality over intelligence, and prompts some schools (namely our old rival school) to allow kids who are Failing to play (one of our football players Failed, transfered schools, and was allowed to play). So really the only reform needed in school is to cut out all the Bullshit like electives and focus more on Math, Science, and History. A longer day would just piss off a lot of kids.
|9.30.09 @ 12:57PM|#
To heck with this year round schooling discussion, I'm just here to point out that the School's Out LP reply to this