Obama would curtail summer vacation
Obama would curtail summer vacation
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?
Share on Facebook
- Posted on September 29, 2009
Animals
Art
Your stories
summary
obama wants kids to spend more time in school he feels as if we do not spend enough time at school he also wants school open on weekends so that kids can feel as if they have a safe place to go and a fifth grader by the name of nakany camara says that she likes the summer school program at her schol she likes to see her friends there and thinks that it has helped boost her grades but she does not want a longer school day and domonique toombs feels the same way 3 hours it just to much
comment
i already dont like him and this just makes me mad because thats the time i get to see my mom and dad asnd he wants to take the time that we do get with them away and thats not fair to them or us and what about the people who have to travil to see there mom or dad does he really want to take family time away because thats how i feel
I don't think so! We spend a lot more time in school than we get on summer break! What do we need to learn? We learn what we need to learn in the course of the year. There is summer school at my school and it is optional.
I don't like being in school now and he wants to add more days. We barely have a long summer it's only about 5 or 6 weeks. Other than that we get on holidays which is like once a month and the last time we get out of school is on bad weather days which isn't our fault. Even on the bad weather days we always make up for those days at the end of the year. Adding more days isn't going to do anything but cause more problems because students are going to get tired their going to get mad and there will be other problems.
reply
i agree i cant stand the fact that he wants to add more days we need time off just like are perents get vacation time off of work so why should we not get time off of school when im out of school my mom and dad take the time off of work when we are out of school so that they can spend time with us because they already dont have alot of time too see
Maybe the reason Obama wants us to not have any vacation time is because he doesn't get any himself. And if we had 3 hours of extra school time, we wouldn't have any homework time. My mom doesn't work, so she's home all of the time. Most kids' parents don't work on weekends, so why would we have to go to school? If this rule goes through, I would think it would be reasonable to make school on weekends optional. If we end up having 3 extra hours, no free weekends, and no summer vacation, I think there will be a lot of psychotic kids running around. I think Obama should be voted out of office before this happens.
Despite our president's short sighted, simplistic and absurd thoughts on important matters everywhere else in the world, its nice to know that he is aware of how ridiculous our school system is. This idea to extend school days is not my personall opinion. I think that it would be a much more simple idea to just have 4 day school weeks, with each day being 30 minutes longer, and no summer break. This would prevent the sudden lack of intellegence and energy among students returning to school.If breaks were extended to accomadate this new change, I think that it would make for a much happier, and intellectual society.
Well, personally I think that we should not have longer school hours. Also, I think that summer school should be optional. If, you don't want to learn during the summer then that should be the students fault. So it really wouldn't be the schools fault if the student fails school or if he/her gets bad grades in school.
I disagree with Obama we should have our summer vacation, And not more school! Most of the kids right now don't like going to school and he wants us to get more days added. In summer vacation is good for us we get a break from school hang out with friends and family.
I agree with President Obama we should have no summer vacation or longer school days but I go more with no summer vacation. I hate summer vaction beacause when I am at home I still have to work. In my whole entire life on summer vaction I went around USA once but I didnt go everywhere. So we should have no summer vacation or less summer vation. President Obama likes koreas education beacause we do more in school and we stay longer. We also have one month of summer vaction.