Year-round school not solution for education woes - Opinion:
"'Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,' President Barack Obama mentioned earlier this year. 'Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.'
What is our president talking about and suggesting? Year-round school, of course. Why, do you ask? Well, Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan put it this way: 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today. Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here. I want to just level the playing field.'
Currently, most public schools in the United States function on a 180-day system. This system was put into place when the United States was largely a farming nation. So when summer came, children were often needed to work the fields."
"'Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,' President Barack Obama mentioned earlier this year. 'Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.'
What is our president talking about and suggesting? Year-round school, of course. Why, do you ask? Well, Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan put it this way: 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today. Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here. I want to just level the playing field.'
Currently, most public schools in the United States function on a 180-day system. This system was put into place when the United States was largely a farming nation. So when summer came, children were often needed to work the fields."