Governor Christie has
recently announced his goals for education in New Jersey. He believes
that school days should be longer and the school year should also be
lengthened.
In our opinion, school is
already about 7 hours a day. How much longer does he want to extend the
day? Most adults work 8 hours a day and after that long day of work they are
tired and exhausted. Doesn’t that say something about how students will feel
after an extended day of school? If the school day is extended, what will
happen to extracurricular activities? Does the governor expect
students to play sports in the dark during the winter months? The governor believes students will
perform better on tests if the school day and school year is longer.
Everything comes down to the tests. What about the learning that takes
place throughout the day? Doesn’t that count for something?
Also, if the school year is lengthened, children will be in school during some
of the hottest months of the year. If that is the case, wouldn’t extra
money be needed in order to install air conditioners in every classroom?
Do you agree or disagree
with Governor Christie? Do you think this lengthening of the school day and
school year will happen in New Jersey?
I disagree completely with Governor Christie. I do not think that lengthening of the school day and year will help students perform better on tests. Danielle and Christina mentioned that students are in school for about seven hours a day now. I feel that students' motivation to learn and do work will decrease if they are in school for longer than seven hours a day. During my field placements I have noticed that the students get tired toward the end of the day and no longer want to do any work, especially the younger students. Extracurricular and sport activities have also become extremely important in the lives of students today. Many belong to a sports team or a club that meets after school. Lengthening of the school day would either end extracurricular activities or they would be pushed back causing students to get home later. Lengthening the school year would also be problematic because during the hot summer months motivation goes down. I remember being in high school and becoming antsy and losing motivation once June came around. This would only get worse if the school continued past June.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem would be trying to change what families and students are already used to. Students will not be happy with losing their summer vacation, especially since it is what they are used too. I feel that there has to be a lot more changes before lengthening the school day and year can be implemented. Plus it will require more money.
I am not sure if this will happen in New Jersey. It is hard to tell. I know everyone I have spoken to about this issue have been against this proposal. I also think that the other issues surrounding Governor Christie right now could also result in a lack of support for this idea.
This issue is something that gets under my skin. I totally disagree with Governor Christie with lengthening both the school day and the school year. First, I believe that students spend enough time in school. Just from my observations and the two weeks of student teaching, I noticed that a lot of students begin to check out after lunch and recess, around one o’clock. Students especially at the elementary level have a small attention span and are unable to focus on something for a long period of time like we are as adults. Second, why are we so focused on test scores? I think that each student gains something from everything that we teach them in school. Each student brings a unique way to learn and process knowledge. Just because students do not do well on tests, doesn’t mean they are not learning.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I coach soccer, winter track, and lacrosse at a high school. I believe that extracurricular activities are extremely important. Playing a sport or being involved in after school activities, gives students the opportunity to relax and “blow off steam”. Students that are involved in these activities learn different things for what can be learned in a classroom. For example, through coaching, and being involved in sports through college, I have learned; discipline, commitment, teamwork, and how to push myself to try new things. I believe that if Governor Christie extends the school day, students will be unable to participate in these activities, therefore, closing the door on the learning that takes place outside of the classroom.
In all, I completely disagree with Governor Christie’s idea of lengthening the school year and school day as it is something that will not benefit the students. Students will become bored and uninterested if all we do if flush them with information. In turn, the lack of extracurricular activities will fade and students will not have an outlet to express themselves and learn from outside of the classroom.
I disagree with Governor Christie. I also do not think that lengthening the school day and year will be beneficial to the students. Seven hours is already a lot for a student, if they were to be in school any longer I think that their desire to learn will diminish, especially with the younger ones. I feel that children in lower grades still enjoy school but if we were to lengthen the school day, they will most likely become bored and loose the excitement they still have to learn.
ReplyDeleteDanielle and Christina also mentioned extracurricular activities. If we were to lengthen the school day, the time allotted for those activities would shorten. I think that students are still learning once they leave the classroom, especially during extracurricular activities and we should be assigning more time for them instead of decreasing it. I think that not only will students disagree with this, but parents as well, like Nicole said, both families and students are already used to how the things are and on top of it the summer vacation will be shorter and we know that students will not buy into that. This proposal does have a long way to go and I also do not know if this will truly happen but I enjoy following the news and reading up about this situation and what happens day to day.
Overall, I too disagree with Governor Christie's proposal of longer school days and years. In most cases, I agree that students are exhausted and for lack of a better term "burnt out" by the end of the school day. Many children are involved in extracurricular actives, which are incredibly beneficial not only emotionally and socially but in the case of sports, physically. Critics of our current school days should not underestimate the power and practical education that is learned in social settings like extracurricular activities.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I think that it is crucial that the youth in this country is in fact involved in these types of activities. This involvement typically takes dedication of not only the child who participates, but their parent/parents as well. Unfortunately, many times in lower socioeconomic areas children do not have parents that are dedicated and committed to ensuring that they are involved in the types of activities. Whether this lack of involvement is the cause of a parent working or simply the lack of parental involvement, these children suffer. I bring up this point because I feel that in those areas where there is not a large parental presence, a longer school day may be beneficial. With that, I want to be clear that I do not think students in these areas should be mandated to stay or should be doing more classroom work. I think these extra hours should be more of a structured after care program. The programs could include sports, clubs, internships, home economic classes, etc. I feel that it could be a positive outlet for those children who do not have a loving, healthy place to go home to.
Like the previous commenters, I absolutely disagree with Governor Chris Christie's opinion that school days should be made longer. The main objective of our state's public schools should be to benefit the children. Christie's wish to make school days longer than they already are would directly contradict this important objective by harming children both directly and indirectly. Longer school days would directly harm students in the following ways:
ReplyDeleteStudents need to have time to simply be children. They will be adults soon enough and be bogged down with responsibilities and constant work and stress. They mentally need the time to be carefree and enjoy life. Also, the current length of school days allows children time to run around and play after school. This is a factor that is necessary in keeping childhood obesity in check.
Furthermore, New Jersey students would be harmed indirectly if school days were made longer for the following reasons: Teacher quality, attitude, preparedness, and competence are all factors that heavily affect student learning and well-being. That being said, students need healthy, emotionally stable, energetic teachers in order to achieve. Christie seems to think that seven hours of work is simply not enough for the teachers of New Jersey. He might have a point there -- but he is severely mistaken if he believes that seven hour school days equate to seven hours of actual work for teachers. Teachers do in fact teach and manage a classroom and take on responsibility for 20+ lives per period for seven hours a day. However, what about the
lesson planning? The grading? The time spent putting together a classroom environment that is effective for student learning and safety? The time spent in meetings, on phone calls with parents and district leaders, and doing research? The time spent evaluating students’ work and tracking their progress, then making decisions to either challenge students or differentiate instruction accordingly for their areas of weakness is also something that brings’ teachers’ work days far beyond seven hours. For a concerned, caring teacher, the present seven hour school day probably equates to more like 11 hours a day. Now, Christie wants to add to the seven hours, so that means even more time for caring teachers to prepare and work on putting together the most researched and focused instructional goals for their students. Eventually, teachers will burn out. With longer school days, teachers will not be able to maintain their physical health, upbeat demeanors, or mental clarity. All of this will indirectly be harmful to students.
kimberly russomanno