School days for young kids should be shorter and more focused
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Anonymous
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I recently learned that kids in many places around the world only go to school for half days through much of elementary. Like it's common to go to school from 8:30am to 12:30 or 1:30pm in many countries, including Scandinavia and much of Western Europe. You can get some idea here: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/02/school-days-how-the-u-s-compares-with-other-countries/
As a parent of a child in early elementary, this makes so much sense to me. So much of their school day is filler (shuffling between classrooms, lining up in hallways, etc.) and with these little kids, the time in the afternoon spent on academics is probably not that useful because they are tired and unfocused by then. My child often does special like music, forcing language and art for part of the morning, which results in more transition time getting to and from the special, and also means that more academics are pushed to after lunch when kids are tired. I like the idea of a more compressed school day with less random filler -- let the kids spend the entire morning in one class room with the same teacher, focusing pretty exclusively on academic subjects. Then send them to lunch, and then aftercare starts and that when you get in music, art, PE, etc. It just makes obvious sense. The idea of a 7-8 hour school day for a kid who is 6 or 7 just does not make sense. If we did this, we could also start shifting a lot of the stuff that teachers now get tasked with to the looser after care environment. The social emotional learning, the focused help for high risk kids who need extra interventions. etc. would all likely be better provided in an after-care environment instead of during the school day when kids are already focused on academic concepts. Studies also show that there are seriously diminishing returns when it comes to knowledge acquisition over long periods of time, and that more mental breaks actually helps with knowledge retention. |
Anonymous
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Okay so how much is this aftercare going to cost? Sounds like a way to shift things to parents. The rich kids and then the poor kids (who get it free) get to take art, language, PE. Middle class kids just go to whatever aftercare they can afford or grandma picks them up.
I disagree with your assertion that school is too long. Most only run 8-3 anyways. |
Anonymous
| That is silly. You can homeschool. |
Anonymous
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I think the amount of time large schools spend on lining up for transitions is really silly. I went to a small school for K-8 and specials pushed in to our classroom. The transition time was minimal.
All kids deserve high quality exposure to arts, story time, music, sports, structured social activities, free play, and academics. So while I agree with you that academics could be a half day, I think they could easily fill a full 8 hours with important activities. It would cost more than what we do now, but it would be better and would provide more helpful childcare. |
Anonymous
| This is basically how the primary class of Montessori works. The only issue is not everyone can afford aftercare, and aftercare workers don’t have classroom management skills and there tends to be an uptick in student behaviors during that time. |
Anonymous
| I am not sure how much focus a young child could have for an entire morning of academics. |
Anonymous
This... OP, it is highly unlikely a class of lower elementary students would do any better by spending an entire morning in one room with essentially no breaks from academics. I suggest you spend 3+ hours in one room with 20+ kindergarteners teaching reading, math, etc only every day for a week and then get back to us. |
Anonymous
I think 8-3 is too long for early elementary. I loved my kids’ morning preschool. They got to learn and play with peers, have lunch at home, play at a playground or in the backyard in the afternoon, and I could cook dinner, get them bathed, and asleep by 7:30. I could then have a couple hours to be with my husband. Those were the days! |
Anonymous
Yes, it sounds like our full day Montessori schedule. The work hours are focused learning, followed by a lunch and recess break. The rest of the day is specials - language, music, art, PE, or library. They are in one classroom in the morning and move around in the afternoon. |
Anonymous
In countries that do this, aftercare is heavily subsidized and costs less to families than most of the shorter, more bare bones programs we have in the US. I know you’ll say “well we aren’t other countries” but the point here is that maybe there is another way. |
Anonymous
What kind of childcare would cost more? |
Anonymous
| Art, music and PE are not extras, ALL kids from all socio-economic levels should have this education. And school is not 8 hours, it's 6. |
Anonymous
Same. My kids go to school from 8:15-2:50. It works out great. My friend is raising her daughter in France and 4 year olds are in school from 8-5. Now that's long. I think most US schools are a fine length of time. |
Anonymous
| Also, the compressed schedule is being pushed by the teachers (for their convenience) and hurts kid's learning. A longer school day with breaks and outdoor time is more pedagogically advantageous. Half-day school schedules also hurt work-life balance, particularly for women, and require more of the family's budget to cover the afternoon time, or forces women to work part-time (again, limiting women's participation in the workforce). |
Anonymous
| While we’re at it, let’s make the standard work day that as well. |