No Child Left Behind?

I read this article on the CNN website tonight. It describes efforts in some parts of the country, especially in Massachusetts, to extend the school day. They are trying to make school an eight-hour experience, with some time on every other Saturday as well. I am an educator and a parent. I teach university students, which is a very different thing than teaching elementary-school-age children, but I have put a great deal of thought into this issue, so I'm going to expound my opinion on the state of America's schools. Because I probably have too much to say on the subject, I'm just going to focus on three things: longer school days, testing, and curriculum. I think these are at the heart of our country's education debate.

I personally don't see the purpose of extending the school day. My feeling is that the school day is long enough as it is, and adding more school will only end up making kids burn out faster. Making kids go to school for eight hours a day will allow for longer classes, but how many kids really have the ability to last that long? In addition, what will this do to extracurricular activities? If kids are in school until 4:00 in the afternoon (or later), when will they have sports practices? What about other groups? Will they be incorporated into the school day? Or will kids who do extracurriculars now arrive home after 7:00 every night? What impact will that have on American family life? These are some of my reflections on longer school days. I'm not necessarily against the idea, but I'd like for them to have some kind of explanation other than, "The kids will do better on tests."

This brings me to the second point. There are a number of problems with standardized testing as I see it. First, linking teacher pay to student performance is a bad idea. Several high-profile cheating cases bear out this argument, I think. Second, the tests cause teachers to focus on teaching to the test, rather than on finding out what their students need. Teaching must be more individualized, and teachers know their own classes better than anyone else. Third, who is evaluating the tests? Here in Florida they discovered a few years ago that unqualified people were doing the grading. Talk about a black eye. Fourth, the tests are given too early in the year, making the last several months of school kind of like the lame-duck period faced by all presidents at the end of their second terms. If they take the test in February or March, then they have to know all the material for the test before then. So what the hell is the rest of the year for? Now many schools are starting the school year in early August, which is destroying summer vacation, an important break for kids to have.

These tests also influence the curriculum choices of school-age kids. Because of the focus on writing and math, and the link between test scores and funding, schools have limited the curriculum in very detrimental ways. Now that reading and math are king, science, history, art, and music get the short end of the stick. Here the argument comes full circle. Proponents of longer school days say they want to bring new subjects into the curriculum by lengthening the day. I think that's a bogus claim. If there was always time for them before, what has changed? One thing that has changed is the current focus on preparing students for employment. Florida recently passed an education law that requires high school freshmen to declare a major and a minor when they get to the ninth grade. I think that's insane.

What it comes down to is one's philosophy of education. I am a partisan of a traditional liberal arts education. I believe that high school students should be required to take four years of
English, Math, Science, Foreign Language, History (or civics), and physical education (our children desperately need activity), plus one or two years of art, music, and other electives. younger students should be doing pretty much the same thing (begin with reading and counting and work their way up). I think this is a perfectly reasonable curriculum, and it would focus not necessarily on making better employees for a service economy, but on helping students become better people.

If you've made it this far, I commend you. Keep checking back for more fun stuff!