None of this is really my business, as I:
a) don't live in the US
b) left school years ago
etc.
However, I do have some questions for the school goers in the US - what sort of hours do you usually go through? When are the holidays, and how long do they last?
My Mum was a teacher, she's now retired, but since she retired, the school she taught at has gotten a new headmaster and he's switched teaching times around.
When I was at school (and I'm going back over 14 years now), we used to have to be in for registration in our tutor groups for around 8:45am. We'd then start classes at 9:05am. Each class would last around 40 minutes, some classes would double up, so that you'd have a consecutive session of 1 hour and 20 minutes. That made total sense to me for courses like design/technology, where you'd be in a workshop, since 40 minutes for a session of carpentry after regsitering for that class and getting everyone settled really wouldn't have been enough time.
We'd have a break at around 10:35am for 15 minutes, then lunch at around 1:05pm for 50 minutes. A couple more classes, then a break for 15 minutes at 2:35pm, and then one more class before going home at 3:30pm.
School ran from the beginning of September (around the 7th or so), to half term (a week break around halloween), then up to Christmas (2 week break there), then from January to February (another half term), up to Easter, where we'd get another two week break, through to Whitsun - another week's break. Then we'd go to the end of July, before a 6 and a half week break or so.
Anyway, the changes that were made to the school I went to since my Mum retired included a change of lesson times - where they'd been extended to 1 hour classes, every other week, or something like that. I said to her that that was a bad idea, but she seemed keen on the change, despite her being out of teaching. She said that with the 40 minute schedule, it'd take 10 minutes to get everyone settled, take the register for that particular class, so only 25-30 minutes' worth of teaching time, because everyone got antsy 5 minutes before the bell rang for the next class. I suppose she had a point.
I know most of that is off topic, I'm just genuinely curious as to the differences between the US school times and UK school times (or other countries, for that matter.)
Getting back on topic:- I don't really know how to comment on whether or not adding more time in school is going to do students in the US any amount of good, given that young people tend to have relatively short attention spans (I did.) They probably gain a lot of skills during social events, which they'd be deprived of attending if they're in school for longer periods of time.
To anyone else posting - please do not derail this thread by getting into "my country's education system is better than your country's education system" remarks. That crap got old years ago.
