Blog # 3 Should Schools Be Open Longer and Do Parents Need To Step Up

Hello fellow bloggers,
The title of this blog is coming from statements the new Seceratary of Education, Arne Duncan made recently during an interview with USA Today.  So what do you think educators?  Well, let's start with his first comment about schools being open longer.  He says about our students,"They're competing for jobs against children in India and China. And the fact is that many of those young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30% longer than our students here".  According to the website ChinaDaily.com, students "go to school from Monday to Friday, nine hours a day," and in some schools in China students are in the classrooms 12 hours day with the weekends devoted to homework and  maybe music lessons or another learning activity.
We all that the students in China are passing thier Amercian counterparts in testing and according one site on internatal testing, "the tests showed U.S. fourth-graders performing poorly, middle school students worse. and high school students are unable to compete. By the same criteria used to say we were "average" in elementary school, "we appear to be "near the bottom" at the high school level. 
I believe that testing does say a lot about how schools and the nation are doing but I don't think we have reached the full circle with NCLB regardless of what some information says.  I don't think NCLB is the complete answer but I don't think pushing students to the point of sucide and cheating is the answer either.  Both of these are major issues in China becasue of the pressure put on young people to succeed on thier college entrance exams.

Now going back to what our Secertary said, he feels that in today's world with US parents working harder and longer that schools need to adapt and make changes so students have a "safe haven" were success can take place.  Changes do need to be made but are longer hours the answer?  I believe curriculm changes are the major issue but I do understand his point that something drastic needs to be done and adding more days to a school year by let's say 4 weeks might work. 

Moving on to the the next part of my title, "Do parents need to step up," well, yes they do.  The Secatary stated, "Parents are always going to be our students' first teachers. The most important thing I can do is to read to my children every night, to not have them watching TV and to really be a partner with that teacher".  How many of us have said the same thing or thought it when we talk to students or parents in meetings?  I would bet many of you have discussed this in the teachers lounge.  Of course were I am now is different but when I did teach at the Middle School level I met many students that did not have partental involvement.  This made teaching difficult because if the parents do not find education important more then likely the student won't either. 
How can we develop and foster such a partnership? The most important point to remember is keep parents informed, says Emmal McDondal, on the Education World website.  There are many examples given to teachers to encourage parents to be involved with thier child and I am many of you have tried them. 

The overall solution to our students test scores or performance is not simple and in young country that is always having different political parties change the agenda every four years it is diffficult.  I would like hear what your thoughts are on what a solution might be.

Have a nice week.

-Kyren Miller