Arguments against Extended School Days - Essay Example

Of the project: Arguments against Extended School Days While researching texts written sometimes back about schools, I found several authors who published books about the literature of education, particularly educational journals, pamphlets, newspapers, and bronchus. I realized that these authors placed the education literature they were studying into the historical context by discussing the importance of reducing school days and teaching hours in which they published the literature (James, 2006). However, while these authors were adamantly proposing the reduction of school days, and teaching hours, I could not locate much discussion about the importance of extending school days. My goal in this paper is to support the extension of school days by explain explicitly the importance of extending school day. To meet this objective I have arranged my paper into three sections, in the first section I want to put across some of the reasons why I support the above thesis, then in the second section, I will give out statements upon which my opponents oppose the extension of school days, I end my paper by looking at both sides and try to convince my opponents to cross over and join me into advocating for extension of school. Before I begin my paper, I need to provide a historical context upon which the books were written, and it is to this that I now start with. HISTORICAL CONTEXT There have been arguments against extended school days despite supporters like the famous US President, Barrack Obama gearing up their campaigns for the same. Although the opponents made an observation that by extending school days the results in the test scores would not be increase, this is just but an act of by rather too pessimistic. Jan (2012) gives an example of Miami Dade School District which reversed its 2004 decision to increase the school days in 2008 citing increased cost on energy, increased teachers’ salaries and poor results among students. These observations have made it seem as though extending school days is a strain not only to the schools but also the other persons involved. This in the real sense is not the case. Reasons Why I Support Extension of Schools Extending school days trains students to be self independent; they learn to live away from the paradise home, if you are observant enough, you will realize that, students who took most of their lifetime studying away from their parents tend to be more responsible in the by the way they carryout themselves, they are always organized even in their house, why? Well you might be wondering, these students did not have the time to enjoy the comfort that comes from being close to their parents, so to achieve this comfort they create it, how? Make themselves good house, by themselves clothing’s and other things, that students who stay close to their parent enjoy for free. Another reason as to why I strongly advocate for extension of school day is that, extending school days will increase the performance in a class, how? You will agree with me that, in class there are first learners and slow learner, by extending school days, these student have got ample time to read and understand what they could not have grasped during the lessons, is this not an advantage? Well, you might still be wondering, a research conducted by a PhD student, Michael at the University of Oxford shown that, an increase in the number of days in school is likely to increase the performance of entire class by around 25%, which is not a small figure, to prove this, add 25% mark to a student who was to an average mark, you will realize that this proposal is worth investing in. The importance of extending school days cannot be overestimated, why do I say this, is it not the coverage of the syllabus that is most import? And with a short duration, do you think that it can be possible to achieve this? Of course not, why for teachers to have a ample time to relay knowledge to students, and for the students to strongly synthesis the knowledge, they have to be given time. So time can as well be a limiting factor towards the success of both these teachers and their students. Although critics argue that the more the children stay away from their parents, the more their behavior gets worse. This is usually not the case; you might be thinking that I am saying this so that I am not irrelevant to my thesis statement, well, to some extent, but another reason is that, ever heard of this famous Chinese saying that, “ if you cannot be trained by your parents, then the world will take the responsibility” (Tim, 1965). Do you suppose this Chinese guy was insane, of cause not, he understood very well that staying close to parents could sometimes worsen the child’s behavior, or rather ruin the child for that matter. A research conducted by a group of psychologist, from Purdue University, shown children from wealthy backgrounds tend to be, more spoilt, drug takers, even thugs, contrary to what we expect! Why these students are spoon fed with everything, and because they stay next to their parents, they receive all the benefits of being close to their parents, that’s why should they experience any form of discrepancy, they venture into things like dtesling, drug dealing, and other inhuman things, which should, the number of school days get extended, this students would have more time studying rather than thinking about other things. There are many more uncountable benefits of extending school day, this are just but a few of them. From the above illustration do you still oppose the proposal? Well, there are individual who will do everything just to see to it that this proposal does not take off, so what is their arguments against it? ARGUMENTS AGAIST EXTENTION OF SCHOOL DAYS They claim that, for proper development of the children they need to be involved in all activities around them. However all this cannot be achieved in school because the school may not be able to provide some things due to financial constrains. So the more the school days are extended, the more the children are kept away from such activities and this will affect them negatively and their performance will also be affected. The kids need ample time with their parents and their relatives. This improves their relationship and it is crucial in their growth as they can learn a lot from each other when they spend time together (Oscar, 2008). Extending the school days will only deprive the children such things and as the opponents argue, this will negatively affect the children, this I strongly oppose why? Even at school, students socialize with other students from other cultural society with is also equally important. They also argue that, extending the school days will be doing more harm to the children other than assisting them better their grades. As it is observed in the boarding schools, the children are usually fatigued due to the long time they spend in school compared to the day schools (Oscar, 2008). This is because the children have little time to rest and this affects their memory due to the strain they get to cover what is taught in class. The teachers are also affected when the school days are affected and this leads to the general standards of the school getting worse each day. This is because the teachers have little time to prepare for the classes and this leads to poor results. Therefore extending the school days will do more harm to the students and this will lead to poor results in their examinations. Why do I disagree with this? It all depends with the students, as long as the students and their teachers are willing and ready to go the extra mile, there is no reason as to why they should not have the number of school days extended. Another reason for their opposition is that the more the children stay away from their parents, the more their behavior gets worse. The parents can closely watch and correct their children and this will ensure that their behavior is maintained at best (Vincent, 2005). This will also help them as they interact with the people around them as discipline is essential in their everyday life. So the holidays given to the children should not be interfered with for any reason. The holiday given to the children should be maintained and this will help the children even get time to relax from the school work. The children should also be given time to do their holiday assignments given by their teachers. Extending the school days will interfere with their holidays and this means that they will have little time to carry on with their assignments. The opponents also stand against the extension of the school days by the argument that it would cause strain to the school facilities. More has to be done in order to meet all these costs and this will mean an addition burden to the parents. The school has to buy more chalks, books and other writing materials for the teachers and the children too. This calls for more finances to be spent if the school days were to be extended and this would cause a lot of strain to the parents (Meece, 2010). In order to avoid such hustles, the opponents argue that the school time should be well spent and this will help avoid extending the school days. Although this can be a debatable reason, it still depends, because should the government decides to actualize my points of view, then they must allocate necessary resources to help cater for the stretch of use of the recourses in the school. Private’s schools should also emulate the same, for the idea to pick up effectively. Together with the above illustration they claim that, the teachers will also demand for a salary increase due to the added time that they spend in school. This means that the parents have to dig deeper into their pockets in order to meet all the additional costs in the school. The school syllabus can be effectively covered with the time available and without creating a need of extending the school days. In most cases the time given in school is misused and this creates a need to extend the school days but the opponents strongly stand for proper utilization of the school time in order to avoid extending the school days (Oscar, 2008). The school management should ensure that the school time is well spent and this will help avoid creating strain to the children and the teachers too by extending the school days. Before I say why I disagree with this is that, for a quality work, what should be the compensation for the teachers? Of cause it should be something attractive, that is when teachers work heartily, and encouraged. So parents should not be as pessimistic as to see the salaries of the teachers, as a factor in fact they should be more than willing to support the idea, that is if they want good for their siblings. Extending the school days will be doing more harm to the children other than assisting them better their grades. As it is observed in the boarding schools, the children are usually fatigued due to the long time they spend in school compared to the day schools (Oscar, 2008). This is because the children have little time to rest and this affects their memory due to the strain they get to cover what is taught in class. The teachers are also affected when the school days are affected and this leads to the general standards of the school getting worse each day. This is because the teachers have little time to prepare for the classes and this leads to poor results. Therefore extending the school days will do more harm to the students and this will lead to poor results in their examinations. I’d like to make it clear that this only apply to pessimists, if you are willing to learn, then increase/ extension of school days will increase you quest for knowledge, thereby you will work extra hard. Critics also argue that extending the school days would affect the performance of the children in class. This is because the kids have little time to refresh and this will be reflected by the poor results produced in the examinations. In order to avoid this opponents strongly stand for the school days remaining intact (Vincent, 2005). This should be strongly supported because the children require ample time with their parents and this will also help them refresh from the much work in school. Extending the school days would only cause more strain to the students instead of helping them improve their grades. Extending the schools will also affect the time given to activities done outside classes like the sports and music. This is because most of the time will be allocated to class work and little will be left for such activities. I am opposing this because, a research by some students pursuing, degrees at the University of Makerere, indicated that students get to learn co-curriculum activities best when they socialize with other students in the school. Finally, they claim that extended school days imply increased budget expenditure despite the current tough economic times in the schools which has caused some schools to even scrap off elective subjects like PE, art and music (Jan, 2012). Again, it would be expected that teachers’ unions would of course demand for an increase in their salaries. This would call for negotiations with schools and the government. On top of this, there would be additional strain on resources such as school supplies and power usage. There would be an increase on consumption of items like paper and chalk. The state also stands to pay financially for any extension on school days. (Silva, 2007) observed an example of California where an extended school day would cost approximately $293 million, explaining the difficulty in rolling out this plan nationally. Therefore, opponents of the extension of school days propose that schools effectively use the available time to achieve better academic performance. Why should I disagree with this critique? You might be wondering? Well, if you are an economist then no doubts you will understand what I am driving at, “by extending the government budget expenditure, employment opportunity is increased by a percentage twice the percentage of increase” (Daniel, 1992) Is this not a good idea, increase in employment, after all what would it benefit a student if he acquires the knowledge but fails to get employed, in the long run. Although their idea might sound appealing in the short run, but in the long run, it might make an entire economy to suffer, unemployment which might let the unemployed into illegal acts like drug dealing and other weird things. In conclusion, despite the above opposes, the idea about extending school days in worth investing in, you will realize that, for every opposing statements indicated above I have shown at the end of the paragraph how, such challenges can be dealt with. I strongly propose and would recommend that those against the Idea cross over and join me into forging a head References Jan, A. (2012), March 28). Parents: Longer school day is bad for kids. CBS Chicago. Retrieved 17 October 2012 from http://chicago.cbslocal.com Meece, J. L. & Eccles, J. S. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of research on schools, schooling and human development. New York, NY: Routledge. Oscar, C. (2008) Time plan in schools. Academic reports. New York: Dumbly. Silva, E. (2007). On the clock: Rethinking the way schools use time. Education Sector Reports;Washington DC. Vincent, H. (2005). School schedule and time planning. Research on schools: Britain. Mand publishers. Tim, V. (1965). Average morals for all. Moral quotes. India: Delphi press. James, H. (2006). Educational Ethics. My days in school. Grena: Makerere university press. Read More