Debate on permanent four-day school weeks
by Andriana Mitrakos

Ever since kindergarten, I would look forward to the upcoming school year, when I would be one year older, one year wiser, and one year closer to finishing school for good. Though I’m sure other students experienced a similar happiness when they reached the end of their school years, as well, very soon, it seems, students will have less to cheer about in upcoming years. As if it was not bad enough that every year classes become more difficult, homework piles up, and responsibilities grow, future students will have to adjust to a possible schedule change, as well.

Because we are not the sharpest “tools” in the global shed, education reform projects suggested by President Barrack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, propose American pupils should catch up to students who outsmart us around the globe. Making Americans smarter, according to the proposals, can only be possible by either cutting summer vacation so that public schools in the United States have 200 instead of the current 180 days of school or by extending the school day by three “measly” hours. Obama and Duncan are advocates of this education program, but it seems that neither of the two has put much thought into the process and the possibly disastrous results.

An article on the dailycomet.com stated that in Obama’s eyes, American students are put at a disadvantage with students around the globe because they spend too little time in school.

“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), …,” an article on Liberty Pundits, said.

Despite the clear difference in the number of hours spent in school, the article further suggests that the same countries that outscore the US have longer school years, 190 to 200 days compared to the US, which requires only 180.

As shown through the above statistics, it is not a matter of how many hours students in the United States attend school each year, but what they learn while at school. “Quality quantity,” not the other way around.

For some, longer hours mean more uninterrupted, educational fun. Understandably, the longer hours would give students greater opportunities to learn more each day, but with extra knowledge comes the extra review needed to understand all the subjects covered in class. Students would start walking out because even a six-hour school day is too much for some. A 2007 study published in the US news section of CNN online said that nearly 6.2 million students between the ages of 16 and 24 dropped out during that year. Just imagine how high the rate of high school dropouts would be with the addition of three more hours to already hectic schedules.

Many students also commute to their schools despite long distances and lengthy travel time. You cannot have students who travel more than two hours each morning coming to school, leaving three hours later than usual and taking that same two-hour trip back home. For Northsiders, that would mean no colloquium and nine hour school days with dismissal at 6:15 p.m. Add the average hour it takes most students to get home and students would be home by 7:15 p.m., which is after dinner time for most families. Add yet again the time it takes an average Northsider to finish worksheets, complete readings, write essays, and get in exam review, and students will get very little sleep, submit horrible essays, and have lower grades because of limited time for test prep.

An hour extension of the school day would also knock out the possibility of after school sports, clubs, and activities unless students want to get home two hours before midnight. Creativity and individuality expressed during the after school hours through outside programs, school plays, and sports would be severely curbed, and I am guessing school attendance rates would also decrease due to increased stress. Some students use sports and extracurricular activities as an outlet for stress and a healthy alternative to doing other activities that would get them into trouble. Sports also open students to the importance of working as one realizing the importance of others in pursuit of a common goal.

The proposal of the three-hour extension to school days was a direct response to the removal of a day from the normal school week. Four-day weeks were proposed so that busses are not operating for the extra day, wasting gas and therefore money. Sorry that transporting the future leaders of the United States to school is such a burden. If people really wanted to save money, they could stop transporting students to schools miles away from their home and focus on keeping schools community based. Of course, some neighborhoods are not fortunate enough to surround a school like Northside, and, understandably, the educational opportunities would not be fair, so maybe money should be put towards fixing schools in bad neighborhoods or fixing the neighborhoods themselves instead of wasting money on unnecessary and thrifty technological student and teacher programs.

Students work hard for our well-deserved summer vacation. Ten weeks might sound like a long time, but it is nothing compared to nine months of hard work, stress-filled weeks, and little sleep. Shorter weeks mean longer hours and more angry students.  Although this proposal has not become a reality yet, Obama and Duncan should rethink the educational proposals, search out and use the opinions of public school students and parents who will actually have to endure the new programs and get some real facts and positive solutions running through Congress.