Not sure if this will help his popularity with today's kids.

But I do feel that something needs to be done in american and in canadians school as well, the current school curriculum is failing America's youth. Why are american kids are continuing to fall behind japanese kids for example?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090927/ap_on_re_us/us_more_school

Your thoughts?

I personally agree with the belief that American kids are already overworked these days. We need more breathing room in the school system, not less.

Think of it this way: let's assume, for the sake of discussion, that an average American 7th-grader spends approximately 6.5 hours in school overy day (8 AM to 3 PM, excluding 30 minutes for lunch). That's a total of 32.5 hours a week.

Now, let's also assume that same child spends an average of 2 to 3 hours, stuck with their homework after school lets out (when I was a kid about 13 years ago, this was the case). That's an additional 15 hours at the most, which gives us a grand total of 47.5 hours, or just under two days flat!

Multiply by four (to get the approximate number of days in a month), and that's 190 hours, or just under 8 days. So, the equation would read something like this.

24 hours a day x 7 days = 168 hours x 4 weeks = 672 hours

Let's also assume that this kid is getting 8 hours of sleep every night at most (which, admittedly, many children don't). This gives us the following result.

8 hours of sleep a night x 28 nights = 224 hours

So, do a bit more math, and things come out to this...

672 hours - 224 hours (sleep) - 190 hours (schooling) = 258 hours to spare

258 hours divided by 28 days = 9.2 hours free a day (approximated)

In other words, the average American student already spends almost 2/3 of their time sleeping or in school (sometimes both)...and Obama honestly thinks the best solution is to demand more?!

Again, more federal gov't intrusion. This should be a state by state issue. I get so sick of these politicians (of all stripes) pushing their sh*t on people. The 10th Amendment means nothing to these @ssholes and those who support the politicians with their feel-good bullsh*t arguments... as long as it doesn't intrude on them.

Hmm ... when they spend so much time in classes they should probably think about lengthening the duration of classes.
From 35 to 45 minutes is probably a good idea, but I think the longer school year is a bad idea that'll put just much more strain on the students over the year.

Kids are already in school longer. In alot of cities summer-school is very populated. Really the biggest problem with school is homework. Those who do homework everyday and study regularly are likely to get the best grades.

And just because the federal govt wants to implement something doesn't mean states have to agree. The 10th Amendment works opposite. States have their right to refuse federal programs

I have a question about summer school:
When you do have to go to summer school?
How long is summer school?

My current impression is that summer school takes place during the summer month(s)? during the main school holiday. So that in the end as a punishment you don't have the time off that the others have.

Every city and state is different. I know in New York City summer school is in the summer months when other students are on vacation (July & August). But it is not a full school schedule and may only last a few weeks and it's usually just a few hours a week, depending on how many classes. It's for kids that don't pass necessary classes during the normal school year.

And I disagree that kids are overworked nowadays. They have it so much easier now. There was little to no internet when I went to school 1985-98. If I needed help studying or on homework I'd have to hope that my friends or family know something, or search the library.

Thx for the info.
So my thoughs are that summer school is a pretty stupid idea. After every school year I had in the last years I was exhausted and neeeded time off. The same was true for those who didn't pass. Putting them directly into summer school after that would have just frustrated them more and drained their 'batteries' even more. With no longer time to relax and without having to care about school and other stuff you practically are running on empty throughout the year.

I disagree about the internet: When you truly want to understand something and not just copy and paste then there is no difference.

I don't know about the US students, but in my last years I spend between 38 to almost 49 hours in school not counting all the stuff I did at home. I know of friends who ran on only 4-6 hours of sleep in the more hectic months from Mo - Fr and in earlier years even till Sat.

A very interesting thing I observed what that when hours were cut, but the volume of stuff you had to push through the remaining hours were the same or more.

It's what I think is also a problem of how the hours are applied: We had units of 50 minutes. For one subject or class two or more of those units were grouped together (sometimes without an official pause after two units). Which was much more effective then to split the units up since we always needed time to settle in (so round 10 - 15 minutes). When you only have 35 minutes you pretty much have no time after that to do something new.

I read his quotes; he never once proposed federal guidelines, federal intervention, or federal legislation. He was giving his opinion, it's a pretty big stretch to take the step from an opinion to "more federal government intrusion."

You can agree or disagree with his opinions, but it's sort of hard to complain about his proposing federal legislation when he hasn't, you know, proposed any federal legislation.

Well finally the O-man got it right.

Don't whine about school year length.
First off, it doesn't matter how long the school year is...kids won't pay attention anyway.
Secondly, What an extra 3 months?