In this article from yahoo, I read about President Obama wanting longer school days and shorter summers.
My first response? Yea. That'll be good for family life...
Kids today spend far too much time away from their parents. They spend far too much time away from their siblings. They spend far too much time outside of the family. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the family to be a community of faith, hope, and charity; it is a "privileged community, the "original cell of social life." The Catechism states that society has a particular responsibility to support and strengthen the family. (CCC, 2204-2210)
In order for a family to be everything the Church tells us it is, the family memebers must physically be present to each other. That is how a family functions. Through the good times and the bad times, through the sibling rivalries and the fun of sharing time together, through the challenges of living together in love, and through the perfection and holiness that come as a result, a family is meant to be together.
That said, am I fully opposed to longer school days? Unsure. As true as everything I have said is and as much as I believe that it is the vision for family life we need in today's world, there is still one problem.
As a future teacher, a large part of my training has addressed the sad fact that not everyone's home life is good. There are many, many kids in our communities today who don't have the opportunity to experience that kind of family life. For many kids, school is the only structure in their lives. The school becomes the only place where they feel safe. Their teachers become the only people who seeem to love them. What about those kids? For those kids a longer school could be a blessing. A longer school day means that they are supervised longer. A longer school day means another meal that fills them. A longer school day means more time that they won't be around drugs and alocholic, abusive parents. A longer school day means they will be less neglected.
I don't agree with President Obama's motives. I don't think family life should be sacrificed in the name of competing with the test scores of the other industrialized nations. However, his poor motive doesn't necessarily make the whole idea terrible...
There never seems to be an easier answer...comment with your thoughts; I'd love to know what you are thinking.
Obama or any part of the federal government does not have the power to change the amount of school days or the school times. This is left up to the states to decide. I do not agree with his ideas except maybe his idea to add a few more days of school a year. I think there are many changes needed to be made with the public school system, but I do not believe that lengthening the school day or week would help students. I believe the real problem is a lack on responsibility at a personal level with teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent of kids in year round school, I don't see the harm in adding more days. Because of the fact that so many kids have minimal supervision or that their parents are too busy to be bothered to watch them while they're off and put them in front of a computer or tv, more education seems like a better option. If they extend the day or the year, there do need to be more options available for activity, though - art, music, PE, supervised free time.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are a lot of problems with the school system.
ReplyDeleteI also think that the extra activities would be necessary. I certainly wouldn't want to have students sitting through more math and reading classes.