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School Year too Long in Oregon, Many Other States

oregoncatalyst.com — The school year, and the school day for that matter, are both way too long in most states. Students are not being served well by forced attendance for 172 days each year. Studies have repeatedly shown no correlation between the amount of time in class and performance in specific subject matter. Instruction time can and should be reduced. Now.

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mejaredme 125 days ago

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tkeeley, on 06/10/2008, -1/+15Interesting.
life38, on 06/10/2008, -3/+13I would supporter a longer day but not a longer year.
atmenterprises, on 06/10/2008, -2/+12Dugg.
Dr.Fade, on 06/10/2008, -0/+14Strange, our schools have started going year round.
Temlakos, on 06/10/2008, -0/+16I never thought I'd see this: an explicit parent-teacher partnership in teaching. These days, the teachers want to monopolize a student's time. Doesn't that make anyone wonder whether more is going on than simple instruction? Like maybe indoctrination?

And I like the emphasis that the author places on school-day activities: shop, sports, the band--and, I would assume, the orchestra and the drama club. To those I would have to add enough laboratory instruction. Many of the experiments I used to run in school labs were of the "don't try this at home" variety. (Not all of them, though. You'd be surprised at what a kid could learn with a typical chemistry set or microscope set.)

But will it happen? I don't expect it. Most teachers won't want to share their authority. But this is a model for some private schools to follow--a sort of half-way between total homeschooling and the total-immersion schooling model that is responsible for those ridiculous 7 AM starts.
5N00PY, on 06/10/2008, -1/+26B-b-b-ut, how is the NEA ever going to effectively brainwash our kids, if they're out enjoying life, and spending time with their families?
- n0gnuz, on 06/10/2008, -0/+6Agreed. There is no way to effectively program children to support the state and the view that white men are the cause of all the world's problems if they're spending time with family and friends, and indulging in academic freedom.
  
  Bad reformer! No abbreviated school year for you.
Conspiracy20, on 06/10/2008, -1/+18Schools go year round to indoctrinate the children into communism ( you might have another word for it). Government is right, government will take care of you, government is ALL, do not question but FEAR. We need to take back the children, teach them in OUR culture (not some manufactured one) and our values. The idea that we accept kids going to "school" or day care starting at 2 months old is OUTRAGEOUS! I can't think of a better example of communism. Keep them home for awhile (that IS why you had them). Teach them respect, love, morality, religion, ethnicity and understanding. Teach them all this and we will win. We have been corrupted. It can be changed.
- ichbeineinrcg, on 06/10/2008, -5/+1Well, that's a load of *****.
  
  If a parent chooses to put their child in day care and get back to work after having a baby, that's not communism--that's exercising a personal choice in a way that many women weren't able to in the bad old days, and while you can debate the result the intent should not be questioned.
  
  The schools teach the goals that are handed down to us by the legislature. If you don't like a topic or a style, get off your ass and do something about it. It's much easier to rail against an imagined boogeyman, isn't it?
  
  Communism, indeed. I'm sorry that your schooling failed you, but I suspect that says more about you than the schools.
  - drachemorder, on 06/10/2008, -1/+5"If a parent chooses to put their child in day care and get back to work after having a baby, that's not communism--that's exercising a personal choice in a way that many women weren't able to in the bad old days, and while you can debate the result the intent should not be questioned."
    
    Not sure what you're getting at. I can certainly question somebody's intent. I think perhaps you meant their legal right to make that choice, and I'd agree on that --- but just because someone has the right to do something does not make it the right thing to do. I would assert that, rights notwithstanding, having a baby and then sticking it in day care when one does not have to do so is a very bad decision.
  - Nannybell, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2*If a parent chooses to put their child in day care and get back to work after having a baby, that's not communism--that's exercising a personal choice*
    
    And it will also be a personal choice when that child grows up and puts his parents in a nursing home someday, won't it.
mejaredme, on 06/10/2008, -0/+9Try this URL for Direct Link:

http://www.oregoncatalyst.com/index.php?/archives/ ...
lodibug3, on 06/10/2008, -0/+16Our government schools have been, and remain, the best funded on earth...and yet, the pablum that is spewed there continues to bring our youth further and further down the road of obscurity, which is where our government wants them.
19592, on 06/10/2008, -0/+15I wish government could be more efficient (sigh).
ripismoney, on 06/10/2008, -0/+10183 days here in Michigan. Actually it's by minutes now but that's how many days our school system goes here close to Flint.
Ebjius, on 06/10/2008, -3/+3It's between 170 and 212 days across Europe, so it's not a big deal.
Rabbittt, on 06/10/2008, -0/+16Shorter days, more choice in subject matter, less testing, more teaching, less instructing, more reasoning, more critical-thinking, more discipline by example, less robotic authority, more asking, less telling, ad infinitum, ad nauseam..
Rabbittt, on 06/10/2008, -0/+11Oh, and the problem is centralized federal planning of education.. By restricting choice in Education, the Fed has necessitated a program of indoctrination.. It's not as much a conspiracy as it is a consequence of ineptitude and shallow thinking..
- n0gnuz, on 06/10/2008, -0/+7Exactly. Central planning only works for small organizations. A national institution encompassing 10 million professionals and 200 million customers (children) is slightly too big for micromanagement by a group of aging Marxist educrats who couldn't pass math, science, or economics classes themselves.
d4nie1, on 06/10/2008, -6/+2Why would you want to shorten the school year? If anything it should be lengthened. What else are the kids going to do? If it's too mind numbing and boring then they should work on adding more hands on, interesting activities.
- gbudavid, on 06/10/2008, -0/+4If The Little Urchins are too bored there is always Washing Dishes cleaning bed rooms lawns to mow weeds to pull.
  It worked when I was Too bored to go play soft ball or go fishing...
davidhallstrom, on 06/10/2008, -4/+1I dugg the post but I basically agree with stuarthill. Additionally, what is more important for children than acquiring knowledge. Finally, although it is wrong, many parents take little or no interest in their children's education. Many parents look at school as a free baby sitter. Sending the children home would not force those parents to spend more time with them. Many of the children would just be on their own with little or no supervision.
- karishore, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Your wrong. Maybe it happens to you with your crowd... Find new friends. Real family people... All of out here are offended that you would say such a simpleton thing.
tehbored, on 06/10/2008, -0/+6What?! Those lucky bastards! In New Jersey it's six and a half hours a day for 180 days.
Stevanoski, on 06/10/2008, -1/+7Kin of mine who are administrator's in public schools love this in El Paso, where they live. Friends who have families hate it, you have no guarantee your children will get the same "2 week off period" at the same time. There is no way for them to make money to buy clothes and supplies as the traditional employers of teens cannot get the schedules to work with only 2 weeks to work with.
n0gnuz, on 06/11/2008, -0/+8Quote from one of my college mathematics professors: 'Education is lost on the young.'

I have to laugh at all the preposterous, Marxism-inspired educational programming that the educrats force down our children's throats, but the fact remains that young children aren't physically or psychologically ready be treated as part-time employees of a factory-school. What children need to be is a revenue stream for their parents. I recommend child modeling and lawn mowing.
xfactor72315, on 06/11/2008, -0/+3Go shorter school year!
karishore, on 06/11/2008, -0/+4Not to mention that the kids bring home 3 or 4 hours of homework.... what do they do in school all day???? Where's the family time when they have to bring home 4 hours of homework or do a huge project/book report, etc over days off or holiday time? Fought a teacher over this one. Again, they are taking AWAY FAMILY time!
Qong, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2Interesting article, though I'm not sure that I can intelligently comment on it as I did not attend public school in the US.

I don't see anything wrong with longer school years or school days personally. As long as the students are learning positive things and are truly being educated the entire time, then I think that they should be spending as much time in school as they possibly can; maybe even sending kids off to stay at school would be a good plan.

The real issue here is that our public education system is a failure, no matter how long the school year or the school day is. That's where change has to come.
neuron79, on 06/14/2008, -0/+1Read the comments, it is a satire piece. From the author, in response to someone who thought it was satire:

"Congratulations!

You win the prize.

You were the first to correctly identify this as pure satire - and you were absolutely correct.

What should really suprise you is that the whole argument laid out above is based on the minimum hours of instruction CURRENTLY required for high school students in Oregon!!!"
Kent4jmj, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1I've been reading "Conceived in Liberty" by Murray Rothbard. You can down load the whole book at mises.org which i recommend as it is an excellent work. Anyways he covers the oligarchical rule of the Puritans in Massachusetts. What is interesting is the complete control of the Puritans and the State to force all children to attend school. Even the "low born" children whose parents the ruling Puritans despised and enslaved. Reason being they could inculcate Puritan ideals in the children.

Now one does not usually equate Puritans and our Liberal Education system together. But the connection is plain to see in this one regard. Access to our children for the purpose of forming them according to the Values of the State.

That being said why does it make you wonder that the "State" wants our children to attend public schools for such long periods of time. Obviously it is not the State's goal to educate the three Rs so what is their Goal? Indoctrination maybe?
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School Year too Long in Oregon, Many Other States

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