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Author Topic:   Obama's threat to summer vacation
T
Knowflake

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posted September 27, 2009 03:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

WASHINGTON – 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.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."

Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
___
Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."
While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.

Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).
___
Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."

In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.

Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.

In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.

Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.

Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.

Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
"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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T
Knowflake

Posts: 1221
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posted September 27, 2009 03:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
Yeah right; just what we need. Children in a school system that doesnt work (at least in the children's favor) throughout the entire year now. Keep them away from their poor hardworking (and overworked) parents as much as possible. We know what this is really all about.

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T
Knowflake

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posted September 27, 2009 03:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
We dont need no education.
We dont need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Teacher, leave those kids alone.
Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!
All in all its just another brick in the wall.
All in all youre just another brick in the wall.

We dont need no education.
We dont need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Teachers, leave those kids alone.
Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!
All in all youre just another brick in the wall.
All in all youre just another brick in the wall.

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katatonic
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posted September 27, 2009 05:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for katatonic     Edit/Delete Message
john gatto, (new york teacher of the year for about a decade, and author of DUMBING US DOWN) argues just the opposite. he says school teaches, basically, how to be a follower, and that what kids need is LESS school, not more.

and there are already summer programs available at most schools. i understand a lot of people think education is important, but it is at LEAST as important, if not more, that kids get OUTSIDE, off their backsides, and away from rules and regulations if they are going to learn to think and feel for themselves.

but the trend for more school has been inching up on us for years now...

and an important part of this is the "need" for parents to be working all the time. what a crock. roll on the death throes of this frigging civilization!

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T
Knowflake

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posted September 27, 2009 10:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
Sounds like a great book kat.

I agree with everything you said above. The goal is to try turning humans into dumb overworked robots.

They won't succeed.

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T
Knowflake

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posted September 27, 2009 10:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
I think you rock btw.

...you should tell people these things sometimes.

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Glaucus
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Posts: 1509
From: Sacramento,California
Registered: Apr 2009

posted September 27, 2009 11:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
I STRONGLY disagree with Obama.

Also I can't stress enough the importance of the education system being overhauled. It's been broken a long time. That's why we have so many children diagnosed as ADHD and put on medication as well as many others that have problems learning in school. Many people are drop-outs because their learning styles don't match the teaching styles. Many high school drop-outs have neurological/learning differences. It gets complicated if they are the twice exceptional (gifted and have a neurological/learning difference). Many dropouts are gifted too.

multisensory teaching methods need to be implemented in all schools


more school isn't necessarily better.
none of that really makes much difference if the teaching methods don't match the student's learning style.


why do so many can't get that.
it's even common sense

all they have to do is read about Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,ADHD,and other neurological/learning differences and how they tend to run in families and have an impact on not just education,but also friendships,relationships,and employment.

Raymond
somebody that has Dyslexia,Dyspraxia,ADHD


------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

- Eckhart Tolle

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Glaucus
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From: Sacramento,California
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posted September 27, 2009 11:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message


Adults with Learning Disabilities: An overview

Not so long ago, it was widely believed that learning disabilities – such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalcula – emerged when a child first tackled academic subjects in 1st grade, at age 6 or 7, and disappeared when a student left academic pursuits behind as an adult. We know now, however, that learning disabilities are lifelong in nature. Assessments of the pre-reading skills of very young children at 3 or 4 are accurate predictors of reading difficulties to come, and while many adults who’ve benefited from quality education targeted to meet their needs do learn to compensate and to a degree overcome their learning disabilities, they never actually go away.

To further complicate matters for adults with learning disabilities, the information age has ushered in a corollary phenomenon, that of lifelong learning. In a world in which the typical individual can expect to undertake not only multiple jobs throughout the life span but indeed 2, 3 or more careers, the academic pressure to read, learn and remember new material never ceases.

The prevalence of learning disabilities has spiraled ever higher among students in American schools over recent years. There are many explanations for this: diagnostics are better able to detect learning disabilities; environmental hazards such as mercury in fish, agricultural pesticides, air pollutants, etc., pose increasing levels of risk during fetal development and to young children; poor instructional methods have left disadvantaged children behind and struggling with reading and learning difficulties that could be misdiagnosed as learning disabilities. Whatever the set of factors causing the rise in students with learning disabilities, one fact is clear: there were many, many children a decade or a generation ago who had learning disabilities that were never diagnosed and who never received appropriate treatment or instructional assistance.

What became of those people with learning disabilities who are now adults? Many of them dropped out of high school, frustrated by school failures. If they were girls, statistics indicate that a very high proportion of them became pregnant almost immediately upon leaving school, seeking life fulfillment outside of the academic experience that proved to be so unrewarding. If they were men and lucky, they found jobs – for the most part entry level and dead end jobs – and got on with life as best they could with low literacy skills. (One individual of note sold beer in the KingDome in Seattle for 17 years before being diagnosed with learning disabilities: he went to college, attained a master’s degree and is now a prominent advocate working for the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.)

Those not so fortunate turned to crime or became victims of crime, seeking medicinal treatment for their neurological disorders in bottles and vials not found in better pharmacies. Although the Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics has not been tracking disabilities among our nation’s prison populations, educated estimates range from 40% to 65% or even higher for inmates and parolees who have learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and psychiatric or addictive disorders, or some combination thereof. As many as 65% of the children incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities prove to be eligible for special education services.

Assessments were run on all enrollees of the Kansas welfare system shortly after the reform measures instituting the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program were passed. 36% of the women tested as having learning disabilities or mild mental retardation. Several years later, after TANF moved the easier-to-place recipients into employment, the hard core unemployed who remained on the rolls represented an even higher proportion of people with disabilities. Over half of the TANF caseload today can be assumed to have learning disabilities, mental retardation, psychiatric or addictive disorders, or a combination thereof.

There is a brighter side to the picture for adults with learning disabilities, of course. Any number of more affluent children attended excellent and very specialized private schools or benefited from top-drawer public special education systems, usually in affluent communities. Successful students with learning disabilities have gone on to attain graduate degrees at distinguished universities, and some have authored books to encourage their peers and proteges. Yet even among the highest achievers, life with learning disabilities is not always rosy. There is the bright young woman who managed to obtain a master’s degree but cannot pass the Pennsylvania MCATS to enter med school; there is the certified special education teacher who cannot now pass the new high stakes teacher exams in Virginia; there is the priest with a master’s degree unable to enroll in the doctoral program of his choice due to entrance exams of a design he’ll never pass.

Add to the mix the fact that 50% of learning disabilities appear to be inherited genetically, and one realizes that all adults with learning disabilities are at high risk of having offspring facing the same kind of challenges and heartaches in school and in life that they themselves have had to face.

Who is there to help adults with learning disabilities? There are six nationally recognized learning disabilities organizations in the United States (who jointly belong to the Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities and the somewhat more broadly defined National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities). All of them focus on children and educational issues exclusively – all of them except the Learning Disabilities Association of America.
http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/adults/special_pop/adult_ld.asp


------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

- Eckhart Tolle

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T
Knowflake

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posted September 28, 2009 01:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
Thank you Raymond. I'm going to read through this in the morning.

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AcousticGod
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posted September 28, 2009 02:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for AcousticGod     Edit/Delete Message
Personally, I can see the nervousness about our education system in relation to foreign education systems. Our elementary education culture is quite different, and it is a bit alarming. On the other hand, this problem isn't new, and so far things are ok. We are importing quite a number of skilled workers, though, and we are also exporting a good number of jobs.

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Node
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From: Nov. 11 2005
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posted September 28, 2009 08:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Node     Edit/Delete Message
I didn't know the schedule for charter schools was that intense.

Around here they shortened the 'summer' and lengthened the breaks. Which makes more sense to me.
They cancel school if one snowflake falls from the sky. [exaggeration]
It did become a problem though as pressure from the parents to keep school open grew.
There were also some lawsuits from parents when school stayed open and accidents occurred. Catch-22 for the school system.
Now they are very cautious [about keeping school open] in bad weather.

I say all this because it messed with the length of the school year so badly, they adjusted it 'for' the snow days.

Attention spans are limited. Adding 2 possibly, 3 hours to a schedule similar to the Charter schools [7:30-5]... I don't know. I would have to see the results, as in grades.
Also, how much of that time is actual instruction, or is part of it used for study hall-home work etc.

I definitely don't think an 8 hour school day for high school is too much. In fact I would agree with that. Treat it more like a public prep school.

We need better incentives / salaries for teachers. Especially in the inner city. Combat pay.

I should prob keep my mouth shut. I don't have any kids in school.

Kat rocks!

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katatonic
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posted September 28, 2009 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for katatonic     Edit/Delete Message
hey thanks you guys! you're sweet - and i mean that in the best possible sense of the word....

i thank my stars that california makes it so easy to homeschool/unschool. all you have to do is find the education office, fill out a form and create yourself a private school. they are exempt from state snooping and controls so off you go!!

my daughter wasted most of the time she spent in school between 10 and 17, all she wanted was a piece of paper to get her out. i put her in a tutorial program where she only had to spend about 4 hrs aweek in school and she became an "A" student overnight! now as an adult she is going to school to get qualifications for a job she wants and is eating it up...

my grandson has a few problems, not with the work, though he gets bored doing it over and over, but with a)"i will stay in my seat at all times unless teacher tells me i can get up" and b)he has a hard time not chatting with his friends...

but his school has some very cool things too, like an organic veg & fruit garden they work in, which he loves, and they EAT what they grow too...

i am so glad i am not a working mom anymore. some days i used to cry saying goodbye to my child at the school gate. i hated having to send her to an institution, but we had to eat...

the good thing is most kids have outlets, parents, friends, interests, that help them escape over-washing of the brain. we all survived, though some of our issues come from that early training. even in far more totalitarian countries people somehow learn to think and learn and not get swallowed up by the system.

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Dervish
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posted September 28, 2009 09:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dervish     Edit/Delete Message
One guy I know said his daughter (who will be old enough to vote in the next presidential election) said that Obama just lost her vote over this.

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T
Knowflake

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posted September 29, 2009 08:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for T     Edit/Delete Message
lol

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