Readers Shares
Thoughts on Education
Jan/Feb 2009

What are your thoughts on school hours?

I personally think school should start later so kids wake up with the natural rhythm of their bodies. Plus, getting home later helps with latchkey kids not being home alone so long. It also keeps high school kids from having so much time to “get in trouble.”
- Susie, writer

Academic teaching and learning should be limited to four or five hours per day, with additional time for lunch, recess and recreation. (Note that this is what we expect from university students.) Even motivated adults “fade” before five hours of instructional activity, according to continuing education research. Too much time leads to stalling and less attention to tasks.
- Richard, Ed.D., J.D. and grandfather to elementary student

I’m up at 6:00 a.m. – it stinks! Some say that it is needed for parents who have to be at work.  I think that even if they have to be at work (by 9:00 a.m.), why do they need two hours after their kids get on the bus? My son’s bus is scheduled to be here at 6:55!
- Anna, stay-at-home mom

My concern is that in elementary school, they start so early, but they seem to tire out by lunch.  After lunch is the hardest part of the day.
- Jennifer, elementary school teacher

I went to school from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. for all 12 years.  That seems right to me.  There’s a limit on how much learning a person can absorb in one day.
- Anne, professor at UGA

School times – it is a no-brainer for me that they should start later. There are many schools in Georgia that start later than Oconee’s 7:45 – it seems incompatible with parents’ work schedules, and the fact that parents have to rush so hard to get their kids to bed at night to wake up for 7:45 start time leaves MUCH LESS time for working parents to have any quality time with their children. 
- Lisa, counselor

I feel like we take so much time to teach them things that they will never remember when they are older, and it would be nice to teach them more things that prepare them for real life. Cooking, cleaning, finances and relating to others is not necessarily learned at home. I am impressed with the teachers I meet, and the job they with our children.  I couldn’t do it!
- Susie

I believe all children should take some form of Home Economics for an entire year in high school that covers basic life skills. This should include basic cooking skills, sewing skills, budgeting and how to fill out a tax return.
- Jodi

I think that the curriculum does teach the children to think and prepares them for the future.  I really think elementary schools do a better job of working together to meet the needs of the whole child.  It seems that in 6th grade, their needs are not as important.  They (the teachers) have to be tough because many of their kids are really tough, which is unfortunate for the sweet kids in the class who need nurturing teachers, not hard-nosed teachers.
- Jennifer

In general, I think students learn less information than they used to.  Current research supports the teaching of critical thinking rather than facts, but I’m “old school” in this regard.  My college freshmen know how to look things up, but they don’t have the factual knowledge, the context from which to understand history, culture, etc.  My 3rd grader isn’t memorizing multiplication tables but is learning conceptual math, which I think is trendy. Same goes for the touchy-feely curriculum in social sciences.  He’ll learn all about protest movements and nothing about World War II. There’s a unit on Cesar Chavez, but nothing about Roosevelt.  Not that it’s not important to gain some multicultural awareness (coming from one who teaches multi-cultutral English classes), but they don’t get the traditional knowledge at all and get the alternate versions every single year.
- Anne

Most middle schools offer P.E. as an elective, so kids might have P.E. for nine weeks in the school year.

I think it is very important to keep some type of P.E. for middle and high school students. Even if they just have a 20-minute time each day that they walk the track. It would be a great break in their day, would release stress and recharge them! Including some stretching in every class for five minutes would do wonders and would be so easy to incorporate.
- Susie

There are physical skills and abilities that need to be acquired on a systematic, planned basis through the middle school years, but physical rest and activity for health and recreation should be allowed during all public school years.
- Richard

ALL children and adults need to unwind and recharge their batteries.  No child or adult wants to sit at a desk for seven or more hours straight!  It’s not natural, and the focus is gone after the first two hours.
- Anna

That doesn’t bother me. There is plenty of socialization built into the school day through projects, pep rallies and team sports.
- Jodi

Kids need recess and physical education all the way through the end of high school. The body and the soul need exercise as much as the mind.
- Dan

Our educational system favors those students who can sit still and absorb information. Get kids out of their desks every once in a while. High schools are especially poor at reaching large segments of the student population. Pull more out of the academic track and put them into a broad-based technical program that teaches a variety of skills that can be used in different occupations.
- Anne

We tend to place great credence in test scores. I looked at the Spectrum (gifted) test, for example, and it seems to be an arbitrary measure, yet it’s held up as some meaningful measure. I’d further contend that “gifted” is a loaded term, and that pulling children out of the classroom in recognition of that nebulous quality is elitist and contrary to the egalitarian goals of education.
- Christina

I hate that, after Christmas, all of a sudden teachers start “prepping” students for the tests they have to take.  All they do is take practice tests to prepare for the tests. It seems that (as a parent of a high school graduate) that our kids are NOT as prepared as they should be in that they have learned to pass tests, memorize, but not “learn“ and study.
- Lisa

I love the idea of year-round school with more breaks. Kids would not get burned out at school as much, and the parents would not have to figure out what to do with their children all summer.  I feel that my daughter definitely loses skills. She has to learn it all over again in the fall!  She also gets very bored, and I cannot afford to put her in camp after camp after camp! Summer ends up being a logistical issue and very costly.
- Anna

As a teacher I cannot imagine school year-round.  However, I do think that it would be beneficial for some children.  Summer learning loss is a big deal for many children, but especially children in poor homes.  I think that year-round school (with a shortened school day) would be a great solution for this.
- Jennifer

I think summer break is essential for kids to learn so many things about themselves and their environments – 1: they need to reach a certain level of boredom before they become creative; 2: they need to have free time to explore their environment; and 3: there are a lot of opportunities for more traditional style learning experiences for those who want their kids to have structure in the summer.
- Carolyn