Too Much Time?
Darren Lang
Darren Lang
As a student here at Hillgrove, seven hours a day and five of those days a week, is spent partaking in academics, electives, and, of course, lunch. Even more time can be spent if the student decides to join a club or come to come to school earlier than 8:15. To the average student, seven hours may already seems like a drastic amount of time to spend in school, with the majority claiming to be exhausted afterwards. It has become a sort of controversy among students when adults propose that we increase the time spent in school daily. “I’d get very stressed and probably have a panic attack.”, states student, Destiny Johnson.
There are of course some good reasons for this proposal. When looking at the more poverty stricken schools, such as Kuss Middle School in Fall River, Massachusetts, considerable results have been shown by adding an additional 90 minutes to their school day. “The Massachusetts Department of Education conducted a study in 2006-07 and found that increasing the school day by 25 percent resulted in an improvement in test scores of 5-10 percent..” states Tim Walker from neatoday.com. Along with that, when looking at some of the highest academically performing countries in the world, such as China, Singapore, and Finland, they all have considerably longer days than we in America have now.
There can be many great effects by implementing this here at Hillgrove. One of which would be to allow many students, of whom struggle in school, additional one on one time with the teacher in order for them to better understand the material being taught. Already however they are some skeptics pertaining to this point, “We already have tutoring and Hawk Hour to help students who are struggling.” states student, David Andrews.
There are also some cons to this increase in class time, with many students claiming that it would most likely further exhaust them and effect the necessary time in which they they can decompress and socialize with friends outside of school.
Something that can also be put into question is how students interested in the arts will be affected. Already, many students stay after school in order to pursue their dreams and, with that, spend much of their freetime at home doing the same. By having a longer day many students who pursue these activities after school may, in fact, be too exhausted to properly learn and practice what it is they care about. “They wouldn't have time to do what they really need to do.”, states Destiny Johnson.
There are however some students more on board with this idea than others. “If it worked in other countries why not? I personally wouldn’t like it, but it would probably make me a better person.”, states student Nicholas Lardia.
There are many positive and negative effects to increasing our time spent in school. What matters most, however, is the student and their ability to learn. All these points should be carefully analyzed and put into perspective before coming to a conclusion of how this should be handled.
There are of course some good reasons for this proposal. When looking at the more poverty stricken schools, such as Kuss Middle School in Fall River, Massachusetts, considerable results have been shown by adding an additional 90 minutes to their school day. “The Massachusetts Department of Education conducted a study in 2006-07 and found that increasing the school day by 25 percent resulted in an improvement in test scores of 5-10 percent..” states Tim Walker from neatoday.com. Along with that, when looking at some of the highest academically performing countries in the world, such as China, Singapore, and Finland, they all have considerably longer days than we in America have now.
There can be many great effects by implementing this here at Hillgrove. One of which would be to allow many students, of whom struggle in school, additional one on one time with the teacher in order for them to better understand the material being taught. Already however they are some skeptics pertaining to this point, “We already have tutoring and Hawk Hour to help students who are struggling.” states student, David Andrews.
There are also some cons to this increase in class time, with many students claiming that it would most likely further exhaust them and effect the necessary time in which they they can decompress and socialize with friends outside of school.
Something that can also be put into question is how students interested in the arts will be affected. Already, many students stay after school in order to pursue their dreams and, with that, spend much of their freetime at home doing the same. By having a longer day many students who pursue these activities after school may, in fact, be too exhausted to properly learn and practice what it is they care about. “They wouldn't have time to do what they really need to do.”, states Destiny Johnson.
There are however some students more on board with this idea than others. “If it worked in other countries why not? I personally wouldn’t like it, but it would probably make me a better person.”, states student Nicholas Lardia.
There are many positive and negative effects to increasing our time spent in school. What matters most, however, is the student and their ability to learn. All these points should be carefully analyzed and put into perspective before coming to a conclusion of how this should be handled.