Ellen Goodman's 1998 commentary "U.S. Kids Need More School Time"
calls for an extended school year. The essay argues that the school calendar
should match the work calendar of the majority of parents. She states the
current school year is outdated because it is based on agrarian societ and that
only three percent of Americans follow that time schedule. The essay notes
that most parents work eight hourse while the schools are only open for six.
Goodman implies if the school year was lengthened to 220 or 240 eight-hour
days per year then student scores would vastly improve. She believes the
calendar change is being forestalled by by students, parents, teachers, and
administrators alike. Goodman feels that prelimanary reform would help adjust
students and teachers to the idea of a longer school year. She suggests
extending an optional summer program with vouchers for those who cannot
afford to pay; however, she argues that revamping the school year to fit around
working parents will still be a difficult but necessary task.
Goodman makes a compelling case for extending the school year, but I
believe the schools fundamental problems are in the quality of the time spent in
school. The compulsory nature and the idea of teaching to the average are at
the foundation of the problems with public education. Forcing individuals to
be some place they have no desire to be is a source of disruptive discipline
problems. The removal of the compulsory law would kill two birds with one
stone. It would lower discipline problems by two thirds, and it would improve
student to teacher ratio for a time. If public education is meant to build strong
individuals then teachers must teach to the individual not the class average. It
leaves behind those who are beneath the curve and bores the ones above it.
Compulsory education is the bane of individulaity. I have witnessed many
students being pulled out class laughing because they were glad to be gone. I
too have faced countless daydream hours of boredom in a classroom.
Attendance rules a joke. If a student is tardy three times they are sent to ISS to
miss a day of classes. If you are absent more then 6 days you fail no matter
how well you know the material or how high your grade average is. John Gatto
a former New York Teacher of the Year and author of the "7 Lesson School
Teacher" discusses the real lessons learned by students in public education;
moreover, it shows why public education is failing. Gatto states, "School is an
artifice which makes such a pyramidal social order seem inevitable, although
such a premise is a fundamental betrayal of the American Revolution." Public
schools only teach conformity. Only the removal of compulsory laws and the
return of education tailored to the individual will produce strong and intelligent
adults.
