Longer School Days?

I'm taking a break in my story to talk about an article I read today. According to the article Mike Feinberg, co founder of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), feels that children benefit from longer school days and even though schools around the country are cutting their hours, and in some cases their days to save money, he is increasing the hours each day the kids spend in school and even adding two Saturdays a month to the schedule.

In January 2009, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, "I think the school day is too short, our week is too short, our year is too short." And he was referring to a five-day week, 180-day school year, let alone the truncated version that many cash-strapped districts will provide this year. Take away time, take away learning. As the co-founder of the Knowledge Is Power Program, a national network of extended-day public charter schools, I know there is no substitute for the hours a student spends with an effective and inspiring teacher.

The last sentence is what really matters. If students had effective and inspiring teachers I wouldn't be homeschooling. Sure there are wonderful teachers. But the system is set up to drag them down too. Teacher's unions protect bad teachers leaving them to damage children and pulling down the entire system. Education is not a"thing" you can buy in a store. It is a philosophy taught by the parents, nurtured by the teachers and embraced by the student. Until the system that confines our children for a hundred and eighty days a year, subjecting them to test after test, inspires them to learn, nothing will change in the education system. KIPP's programs appear to be working because of the overall effectiveness of their teachers. Also, as a charter school they are not bound and gagged by the requirements so many public schools are. This I believe is the key to their success. Public school systems don't set out to fail our children. Teachers don't set out to squash the love of learning from our children. Pouring more money into the system won't fix it. Adding hour after hour, day after day to the school calender won't change a thing and may do more harm than good. It's all about quality, not quantity. Just like so many things in America, the school day is full of waste. Wasted time, wasted money, wasted effort. That's where schools should start looking. Pouring more hours into the day and more money into the system isn't the answer.

Comparing schools in the US to other countries is like comparing apples to oranges. Their entire system is different. Not just the hours or the money they spend. Parents don't value education in this country like in many other countries. KIPP is proving that it doesn't have to start at home but the kids who need a program like KIPP wouldn't even be necessary if parents truly believed in the value of education, then put the effort into passing those values on to their children.

What I've noticed that many (not all, of course) parents are happy to just ship their kids off to school and let the school system deal with them. That causes the school district to shift from educating kids to housing them. That creates an environment for kids who really want to learn to become discouraged. Standardized testing which affects funding causes the schools to focus on the tests instead of learning. Who can blame them? Most of them are surviving on a shoe string and can't risk losing funding.

I don't believe more hours or money is the answer, at least now. First you have to fix what's really wrong. Then work to improve from there. A new paint job on a junker just makes a shiny junker. It's still a piece of crap underneath.