All Day School? U.S. and U.K. Look to Extend School Day, Serve Kids Dinner
In the U.S. and U.K. politicians are proposing the idea of lengthening the school day, and keeping the students in class from morning till evening - basically the hours of a full time job. An ’after school dinner program’ is also being floated.
The benefits, say the politicians, is the kids will be ’safer’ at school in the evenings, since the parents may still be at work, the kids will be ’healthier’ because they will be eating from the school menu, and the kids will be ’smarter’ because they’ll have more hours of schooling.In reality, longer hours are harder on kids, more time in a classroom doesn’t equal better education, and the nutritional value of school lunches is questionable.
Do we really want our kids pushing pencils for 45 hours a week when studies have shown that sitting for extended periods is terrible for our health, and in addition schools are doing less physical activity and providing fewer recesses (again, bad for kids)? Furthermore, spending extended hours at school means they’re only at home for a few hours a week, in many ways creating a dynamic where the school is HOME, and thus more influential than the student’s own family.
One report even went so far as to suggest this plan would "keep kids off the streets", like they are criminals.
There’s so much wrong with the idea of long hours of school as a solution, because it ignores the real systemic issues with the educational systems in both the U.S. and the U.K.
More on the fast track to total indoctrination....
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US: All Day School? Chris Christie Weighs in on Schools Serving Kids Dinner
By Melissa Melton | The Daily Sheeple
Common sense might suggest that the porcine governor from Jersey shouldn’t be a model for school lunch nutrition…
But all the same, Chris Christie, a rumored White House aspirant, wants to weigh in on extending the school lunch program into a school dinner program, along with a longer school day.
“Life in 2014 is very much different from life 100 years ago and it demands something more for our students. It is time to lengthen both the school day and the school year in New Jersey,” Christie announced during his state of the state address.
Christie wants to establish an after-school dinner program, starting with six inner-city schools. The New Jersey Education Association showed support, but noted that about a third of New Jersey’s school districts have already “negotiated longer days and/or years.”
Talk about total indoctrination, total control.
But this lightning rod GOP figure isn’t the only one.
President Obama has proposed almost the same thing since 2009 – along with a universal daycare program to get more kids in government learning centers at an earlier age for longer and longer periods of indoctrination and greater exposure to an often less-than-appetizing school menu.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas. Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom,” Obama quipped in September 2009.
Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan – who ran Chicago public schools – backed up Obama’ s argument for more calendar days of instruction and longer school hours:
“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”
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Read the full article at: thedailysheeple.com
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UK: Schools could open from 9am to 6pm for 45 weeks a year
By Emine Sinmaz and Jason Groves and Matt Chorley | Mail Online
Schools would open until 6pm for up to 45 weeks a year under plans drawn up by David Cameron’s former Number Ten policy chief.
Paul Kirby suggests long summer holidays and short working days for teachers should be scrapped.
Under the highly controversial scheme, which would enrage teaching unions, the average school day would run from 9am to 6pm, while school holidays would be slashed to seven weeks.
However, government sources last night played down the prospects of the idea ever being adopted.
Academies and free schools have had the flexibility to alter their school day and term length, including working longer hour, for years. But few have taken up the opportunity.
A Government source said ministers were keen for more schools to experiment with different hours, but said Mr Kirby’s call for a compulsory 45-hour week went ‘well beyond’ anything being considered.
Schools already have the freedom to set their own term dates and vary the length of days, which could signal the end of the long summer holidays for thousands of children.
Mr Kirby told The Sun his proposals would ‘transform the lives of most households in the UK within two years’.
Nine-hour school days would slash childcare costs for parents and boost education standards, it was claimed.
Pupils would also be better prepared for work as they would become used to the long hours and it would keep them off the streets.
Mr Kirby, who left Downing Street a year ago to return full-time to accountancy firm KPMG, added: ‘This is a once in a generation reset that wouldn’t detract from the current school freedom agenda. It also involves dramatically expanding what schools actually do — into sport and other activities.
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Read the full article at: dailymail.co.uk
