[ETWolverine]

From: More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation - Yahoo! News

More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

By LIBBY QUAID, AP Education Writer Libby Quaid, Ap Education Writer Sun Sep 27, 3:29 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.

"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."

Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
___

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more 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), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

___

Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.

Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.

"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."

In the U.S. there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.

Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.

In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.

Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.

Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.

Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.

Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.

Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md. summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

"Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents," Duncan said. "They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table."

___ Associated Press writer Russell Contreras in Boston contributed to this report.

I'm of two minds on this.

On one hand, I think that it would be a good idea for kids to have more school time. Frankly, our kids need more time in a regimented environment, whether that's school or after-school-programs. Having too much "free time" is not a good idea, in my opinion. That's what gets too many kids in trouble. More time in school = less time in trouble.

On the other hand, the real problem with education is not that the kids don't have enough TIME to learn, it's that the public school system itself is failing them. Waste, mismanagement, poor teachers with tenure, and a curriculum that lacks the basics of the three R's and spends too much time on teaching "social responsibility" and "alternative lifestyles" rather than math, history and science. Giving the kids more of the same system when that system is what's failing them isn't going to solve the country's education problems. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Here's one big question that's not answered by this article, though... how would Obama pay for this proposal which would cost about $1300 per student per year... a 12 - 15% increase over the current level of spending?

Here's another... would the teachers' unions accept the longer school year? They have already balked at the idea of a longer school day for their teachers. Would longer school years be any different?

Any thoughts are welcome.

Elliot

[tomder55]

If they don't spend more time in schools how will they learn all the mind numbing ditties ? MMM-MMM-MMM
YouTube - (No background music) School kids taught to praise Obama


Edit :

Found alternate verses to the chant in the above Youtube video


Mmm, mmm, mm!
By Asher Embry

Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama.
A creepy abnormality,
This cult of personality
Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama.
What lunatic would think it's fine
To do this to a child of mine.
Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama.
Do teachers have so little sense
To think we wouldn't take offense?
Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama.
We don't recall schools try to push
A song like this 'bout either Bush.
Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama.
Think maybe now we weren't such "fools"
To try to block O's speech to schools?
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama.

[speechlesstx]

Tom beat me to the punch on that one.

All I know is for a kid it sucks, I mean summer vacation is a rite of passage. On the other hand it's good for parents who have to work and it does give kids less time to get in trouble elsewhere.

But, libs either don't have a clue or they know exactly what they're doing... maybe some of both. Their education "solutions" are abysmal failures academically. Throwing tons more money at it and lengthening classroom time won't fix the problem of students not getting a good, useful education.

It will however give them much more time to be indoctrinated. Then they can get a student loan (another new government monopoly under Obama) and go to college and join their production of The Vagina Monologues.

[tomder55]

The parents will indeed need to work them extra hrs to pay the school taxes. My view is that there is more to larnin than what can be taught in school. There is a short opportunity in your life where you get a chance to live fairly care-free. For me that was the summer months of my youth. There is plenty time later to do the 24/7/365 thingy.

Leave them kids alone.

[speechlesstx]

The parents will indeed need to work them extra hrs to pay the school taxes. My view is that there is more to larnin than what can be taught in school. There is a short opportunity in your life where you get a chance to live fairly care-free. For me that was the summer months of my youth. There is plenty time later to the the 24/7/365 thingy.

Leave them kids alone.

Absolutely right, and that not only goes for summer vacation but this huge push for comprehensive sex ed for kindergartners.

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Love that song.

[speechlesstx]

Speaking of Obama and schools, have you heard about his "safe school czar" Kevin Jennings?

A teacher was told by a 15-year-old high school sophomore that he was having homosexual sex with an "older man." At the very least, statutory rape occurred. Fox News reported that the teacher violated a state law requiring that he report the abuse. That former teacher, Kevin Jennings, is President Obama's "safe school czar." It's getting hard to keep track of all of this president's problematic appointments. Clearly, the process for vetting White House employees has broken down.

In this one case in which Mr. Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.

According to Mr. Jennings' own description in a new audiotape discovered by Fox News, the 15-year-old boy met the "older man" in a "bus station bathroom" and was taken to the older man's home that night. When some details about the case became public, Mr. Jennings threatened to sue another teacher who called his failure to report the statutory rape "unethical." Mr. Jennings' defenders asserted that there was no evidence that he was aware the student had sex with the older man.

However, the new audiotape contradicts this claim. In 2000, Mr. Jennings gave a talk to the Iowa chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group that promotes homosexuality in schools. On the tape, Mr. Jennings recollected that he told the student to make sure "to use a condom" when he was with the older man. That he actively encouraged the relationship is reinforced by Mr. Jennings' own description in his 1994 book, "One Teacher in 10." In that account, the teacher boasts how he allayed the student's concerns about the relationship to such a degree that the 15-year-old "left my office with a smile on his face that I would see every time I saw him on the campus for the next two years, until he graduated."

Mr. Jennings' denials about these events reveal a lack of remorse. He has not admitted that he made mistakes in this case, and he now refuses to answer any questions about the scandal. Don't forget, this is a presidential appointee we're talking about. Mr. Obama should make clear what his standards are for public servants serving at the pleasure of the president. Encouraging and covering up man-boy sexual activity are serious offenses. The White House should force Mr. Jennings to come clean.

Mr. Jennings has made extremely radical statements promoting homosexuality in schools and about his utter contempt for religion that render him unsuitable for a prestigious White House appointment. His job in the Obama administration is to ensure student safety, and this scandal directly calls into question his ability to perform that job. Mr. Jennings and Obama administration officials refuse to answer any questions about this newly discovered evidence. A lot of Americans want answers about this guy and how he was approved for a job in the White House.

So we've got the guy on tape pleased that he put a smile on a 15 year old's face after endorsing his homosexual relationship with an older man, and this is our "safe school czar?" Safe for who?