Should kids wave goodbye to the weekend as we know it? How about summer vacation? Does more school time = a better life?
Arne Duncan, Obama’s newly appointed Secretary of Education, has proposed this month his intention to seek a six day school week and eleven month school year for America’s public schools. This is a very interesting proposal. It involves issues of civil liberties, parenting, teacher pay, socialization, and a few other things myriads of people have mentioned in forums across the web. I did a fairly lengthy browse of this topic on Google and found Duncan hasn’t offered too many details per his proposal. I think Obama is being seen as the “reform President” with his bailout policies toward the auto makers and such. Duncan’s reform-like proposal then would seem to fit in nicely. Still, a person driving an initiative this radical should have the backing and support of educational leaders across the country. I wonder what the state Superintendents think about the 6/7, 11/12 school year? I can tell you I have my opinions.
I feel what he is proposing is what has been wrong with education the past 20 years. Officials throw money and time (which are inseparable when you MUST pay teachers for their time) at low test achievement scores. What this produces is slightly higher paid teachers (emphasize slightly) who are less rested and more irritable. Let’s face it, not every teacher would prefer a bit more pay to work 11/12 with kids who rarely want to be there either. The kids will be tired as well. How will this extra time increase achievement? If he can prove that, I’d be all ears. Oh, did you know this man has never been a teacher? That’s what the Wikipedia article on him has to say.
“Duncan has extensive experience in educational policy and management, but has not been a teacher.” Wikipedia
I found that fact quite interesting. How hard is it to sit behind an admin clipboard and mandate longer school years when you’ve never taught a single year yourself? His proposal would have more weight with me if he had spent even a few years in the classroom. Almost every parent who visits my classroom, for example, changes their held beliefs about what teaching is like.
There are other issues such as civil liberties. For example, what makes the government think that I want to part with my OWN children these extra grueling months? Apart from being a public school teacher, I myself have kids in public school.
Not every parent is neglecting their kids as some do in the inner city where he has done his post graduate research. Some of us parents arguably give them more educational value than the time they spend in public school. My 4 year old, for example, is learning her vowels from me and not just those. I’m teaching her the long and short sounds. This is way above the K standard. But this is just one small example of the power parents have to educate their children while not in school. Perhaps we should decrease the school year and expect more from parents? If Duncan is indeed serious about the longer school year, he needs to prove a mountain of reasons to have it make sense.
As I close the post, I must mention the cost inherent with this proposal. Take an average teacher’s starting pay in California: $35,760. Teachers work 185 paid days a year which equals to $193 a day. What Duncan is proposing would add about 120 teacher days per year. Remember that education produces no revenue for the states, the government allots ADA per student per day and this would increase the strain on taxes. IF Duncan plans to pay teachers to work 11 months at the same rate (NOT COUNTING THE EXTRA DAY IN THE WEEK), based on the starting pay for California, it would increase the yearly salary of new teachers in California on average $23K+/Year. In some states that is a new teacher’s starting salary. Now multiply that out times the multitudes of higher paid teachers, many of whom will not welcome a longer work year even if it is more pay. Remember too, I based my figures simply on a longer school year with the 5 day school week as it is now. The 6 day school week would increase that figure considerably. None of these details have been discussed.
What is your take on a longer school week and year? Is this a good fix for education?
12 Comments
I ranted about this on my homeschool blog. None of these politicians were forced to go to school six days a week, 11 months a year. Who would want to learn, when they are basically imprisoned for their whole youth? Why do we feel we have to compete all the time, with India, and China? I swear they put this info out there, we all complain, and they go Ok maybe not a good idea.
Thanks Melissa. I actually don’t mind No Child Left Behind that much because it has forced teachers to be accountable to something in the classroom. This is like using a sledge hammer to fix a broken toy. Thanks for your comment :)
I don’t have the answer or answers, just observations, and wanted to comment. The people we teach and society has changed so much in the last 20 years. We have not considered the fifty years before that and we bandage and re-bandage a bleeding and wounded education system.
Education in the 21stC remains almost entirely with a 19thC-teaching model.
Perhaps an 11-month year is to be considered. Changing the year to match how Australia does this, may not be that bad. Instead of a two month break, your blog suggests a one month break. The opportunity to repackage the year with two or three additional two week breaks spread out between trimesters would not add to a teachers’ salary.
Additionally, trimester breaks would perhaps be rejuvenating for students and teachers and there may be less educational loss in retention by students in moving from one trimester to the next.
The money issue will be the first item raised. I personally would not increase my time in class for free. Certainly, as a professional my time and skills are worth something (actually they are wort a lot in $ and knowledge shared). I am not alone in this thinking. Good teachers would leave the system rather than donate a day of their lives “for the student”. It isn’t all for the student as Districts like to throw out. A 16% increase would cost an additional average of $8K per year. This will not happen. That would be at least a $1B injection just for salary (not including benefits, pension and other costs).
The question of should the six-day week happen is a different issue. Education must move from the feel good and no one needs additional support and time to succeed to one of rewarding those who achieve and supporting those who need additional time and teacher resources.
The feel good education movement that hurts no one (except the learner later in life when they can’t get or keep a job or get into an expensive college – all colleges) but stresses our society as to skills and ability must be reevaluated.
Unless we can change our entitlement society philosophy then a six-day week will not succeed.
Wow…I come home now on Friday night and crash as soon as I can get my kids to bed. I can’t imagine a 6 day work week. When would teachers have time for laundry and grocery shopping. Not to mention when would kids have time to be kids. I love spending time with my own children on the weekends.
I like the previous comment about changing the format of the school year with longer breaks more frequently. I think that you’d get more parents and teachers to buy into that idea than going to school an extra 3 or 4 weeks. That’s the way that school used to run. You went to school in summer and winter and stayed home to plant in spring and harvest in the fall.
@gr8wheelss: Yes, I agree we have an entitlement culture with regards to public education. As teachers, we theoretically got into this to be public servants the same way police or fireman did. Yet, at the same time, our job requires 2 or three times the education and in some ways at times we are legally more at risk in what we do (not to take away from other public service occupations). We spend 185 days a year with tomorrow’s citizens and yet we are often treated in politics as if we have a dime a dozen/replaceable occupation.
I’ll be 40 in June and I have taught since I was 27. These are years of my life I would never trade, they have been wonderful and I feel I have made many contribution to kids and their families. However, if they ask me to work significantly more hours than I work now without pay increase, I will consider leaving the occupation for something that pays me commensurate with my skills and education.
Thanks for your insightful and thought provoking comment.
@msmathteach: I used to teach in a year round system that didn’t increase the # of days but spaced the breaks out through the year. I felt that was more effective that 2 months off for Summer. You make a some great points in your comment, thank you.
@melissa: We feel that we need to compete with India and China because we do, because we ARE- we live in a global society where country’s boundaries are not limits for the job market and students’ futures. And the American standard IS slipping for schools. Longer school weeks and additional months may not be the sole answer but it most certainly will be PART of the solution
@MDM: Yeah but how stupid will we look when we got to school 365 days a year and we still produce failures in the world marketplace?
The solution is not to add more time but rather to use the time we have now which many many many are not.
Are u guys completely STUPID or something? You’re forgetting the #1 IMPORTANT thing. Health issues, kids aren’t going to do better if their completely tired. it would definitly affect their education, and chances of getting a decent job when older. Think about what your doing. Teachers are just going to stall for another day which will be a pain to everyone.
We’ll see how it pans out. Thank you for your comment
I myself am a student in year 7, and I would not like going to school 6 days a week, 11 months a year. Think about it, it’s easy for Obama to say that, he isn’t a kid, we /need/ sleep. We /need/ time to be kids. Being at school that long won’t increase the chance of us being “smarter”. With less sleep, and less energy, we might not even pay attention in school. What about kids who take part in sports? I go to school and after school (everyday) I either have a game or practice. After going to practice or a game everyday, I would like to rest on the weekends, because it is very tiring. In Social Studies, my teacher mentioned this, and she said /she/ would not like to work that much.
@Angelica: Wow, great comment. I think we need more kids … ahem … young adults to speak out on this topic. Thank you for your two cents.