Year-round Schooling? It Might Happen in Maryland | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View

The debate about year-round schooling and extending the school day stems quite a bit from the desire of the United States to be competitive internationally. Irrespective of the research, I do not agree with this philosophy. Other countries have a discipline that the United States does not have. Children in other countries (particularly Japan, China, Israel) study. Children in the U.S. do homework. The educational system in other countries is designed to educate their children to compete with American children. As a result, the entertainment and social index in other countries is not as high as it is in the U.S. So, if we want to compete internationally, the solution is not to increase the school day and the school year, but it is to reduce our entertainment and social index. And, teach our children to study.

Another motivation for extending the school day and school year is to prepare students for college. Presently, at least 50% of first time students in college take developmental English courses and at least 60% take developmental Math courses. To reduce these proportions the k-12 system must get back to the basics of learning and literacy--reading, writing, and arithmetic. This is what the school day should be comprised of. Anything else can be offered to families as afterschool programs. This strategy will increase the percentage of students prepared for college.

And finally, children should be allowed to be children. In this country, it is simply unhealthy to mandate that a child goes to school for 40 hours per week, five days a week, and 12 months out of the year. It is stressful for adults to handle a work schedule of this type so it's hard to understand why politicians would want to impose this schedule on children.