1. Myriam Kobylkevich:
   April 9th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

   As a long term faithful Gadfly reader, I have to admit that if this was a Mike Petrilli vs. William Crain debate, William Crain produced better evidence. He pointed out that Finnland gets better score results with less school time. I was educated in Uruguay in the good old times and much more knowledge was packed in 20-24 hours of school a week in grades 1-12 (20 hrs for grades 1-6, 24 for grades 7-12) than what US schools (public or private) deliver in a much longer schoolday and school year. I am a proud American citizen and want to root for the home team, but our educational system is woefully inefficient.
   Providing extra quality education to students at risk may be beneficial, but throwing money or time at education in general has not improved it before.

2. Medina:
   April 10th, 2009 at 8:21 am

   I also agree with increasing the school year. Results being equal, or close to it, I’d still favor a longer school year. We work with our children 7-days-a-week during the school year. And that isn’t because we’re academically obsessed parents demanding straight “A’s” My children rarely get straight A’s and I’m perfectly happy with that.

   I’d like to see the same material covered over a longer period of time. Let’s keep more work at school, rather than sending it home for parents to complete. We’re not the only ones who feel like we’re home-schooling our children some of the time. Let’s allow our children to engage in more social and rigorous athletic activities after school and on weekends rather than being chained to the kitchen table doing school work. Let’s eliminate the summer, Christmas break and Spring break lag by keeping their minds engaged in the material year round.

   Let’s look at education as a flat and constant application of energy and focus rather than dramatic peeks and valleys. Low and slow should be directive.

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