2009-09-27 Obama would curtail summer vacation

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Excerpt

Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "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."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Some questions:

  • Why are they mentioning these remarks of Obama's now, when he made them half a year ago -- and the subject of educational reform is not currently being pursued by the administration?
  • Why don't they mention that this suggestion (longer hours, more school days) comes at the end of many paragraphs of other suggestions, many of them quite good (reforming No Child Left Behind, for one; promoting charter schools, for another), and also the fact that the bill he is promoting provides money to reduce teacher layoffs?
  • Could the answer to either of these questions be that they want to cast a shadow of disfavor on what the administration is currently working on, i.e. healthcare reform?

Reposts: Teacher Magazine



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