Well it seems as if the secretary of education agrees with me that in order to compete globally, we need to educate our children longer. I think I posed this comment to one of Dan's querries. I know it will be a cultural war as summer vacation, and short school days are so embedded in who we think we are as a society. Yet, how are we to catch up on teaching children how to think deeply in a global arena if we don't make systemic changes? I say as inconvenient as this will be, that we must enbrace it to get to the front of the line of competitors. Otherwise we're going to wind up on a very long summer vacation while the students from India, China, and other nations are working all the available jobs around the world.
I see the stimulus money may somehow be tied to these changes. Now, that's a way to get buy in.
Anyway, read all about it at the following link: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=113300&provider=top&catid=188
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wow, heavy stuff. 7 days a week, 11 months a year seems a bit excessive. i would hate to err on the side of overdoing it! having said that i'm in favor of reorganizing the way school works. the summer vacation is too long, i think we could make some significant changes while not adding, but rearranging where the time off resides on a school calendar.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to change things, exactly the point Ian Jukes was making when he told us why train tracks have always been and still is 4 ft. 8.5 inches wide. Adding 63 more days for example (if we were to equal Japan’s number) does not really ensure that our kids will learn more. I know summer readings have helped but for those struggling readers and those who belong to the low SES where access to books is limited, this could serve as a very big challenge.
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