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Longer School Hours
It was Wednesday noontime at Rosa International Middle School, my friends and me
were facing a serious dilemma in our every two days physical education class. We were
working on an important step-a-robics routine for our team of five. We could not figure
out what steps we should do in our routine. Time was going to be troublesome; we did
not have enough time! Our teacher Ms Housman had given us today and Friday and then
we would have to perform on Tuesday! We eventually ended up with a premature routine
that we were not used to and we messed up and lost a lot of points. Maybe if Gym was
longer we would not have done that bad on our routine, we would get the full number of
points. If only school was longer. The school district needs to do a lot of tinkering with
the standard length of student’s school hours. Cut away from student’s school hours?
Switch to a four day school week? You got of be kidding me! School needs to become
longer; it is becoming a universally accepted fact. Shortening the daily school hours or a
four day school week isn’t going to do anything to help students, but longer school hours
will benefit you by improving your grades and test scores and academic skills, supplying
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extra time for fun activities that normally would get cut out and providing more time to
learn and grasp concepts.
Although longer school hours might be something kids would strongly object to,
preferring to go home to play their favorite video games, or text their friends via a cell
phone; they would be glad once they notice straight A+’s on their report card, or a 100 on
every one of their tests. Longer school hours have been like kind of a gift to people who
increase their grades, test scores and academic abilities. At Washington Jesuit Academy,
middle school students spend nearly 12 hours a day there, from 7:30 A.M to 7:15 P.M.
These middle school students have shown so much improvement on their test scores that
Washington D.C officials are using the school as an example for the city’s public schools.
In 6th grade fewer than half of the Washington Jesuit students were reading at grade level,
but by eighth grade 90% of them were. That is the advantage of longer school hours,
being able to improve your grades, test scores, academic abilities dramatically, an
achievements every kid would be proud of.
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Many kids think school is dull and boring, and are always impatiently dying to go home.
They sleep and daydream during class; chewing gum and talking to friends rather then
paying attention to the teacher. With the possible question of longer school hours, they
are even less excited. But you could win those kids over, because with longer school
hours, you have more time to incorporate fun activities that you normally would not have
time for into the school day. Kids would not feel as bored if they were watching movies
about history in Humanities or making a rocket in Science. In a recent fifth-grade math
class at Salemwood School, Maiden, Massachusetts, students were outside flying paper
airplanes, charting their airplane’s distances, analyzing design elements, and remaking
the planes to outfly the class record. They were also able to play math games in some of
their other math classes. It’s only possible because the school is pioneering an initiative
to extend daily school hours. With longer school hours you would be able to do a lot of
things that you were not able to do without extending the school day. You would be able
to include recess, as well as talented and gifted programs, and we could go to band five
days a week like Ms. Mark really wanted us to be able to do. We would also be able to
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add new subjects like geography which is hardly done anymore in schools today. Imagine
the possibilities with longer school hours. By having longer school hours, you would be
able incorporate fun activities that are and not hard-core learning and therefore make
school a little more exciting and enjoyable and not just all learning for kids who are not
avid fans of school.
In my Enriched Math Class I am getting bad grades, because of extremely low test and
quiz scores, and which is completely due to the fact I am learning new concepts and I
did not really grasp the concepts, which is because there is really no time. But with
longer school hours, there would be more time for learning how to multiply and divide
fractions and to completely grasp the concept. Then I would be more prepared for
upcoming tests and quizzes and I would get back better test scores which would lead to
an A in math. The time we have in school now is too short and it hinders the students’
possible academic and learning improvements those extended school hours would most
likely provide. I know I can get an A in math, but like I just said, without the advantage
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of longer school hours, it might take a longer time for me to reach that level. The normal
amount of core area instructional class time in the USA is the shortest of all developed
countries compared countries like France who have more then two times the amount of
the USA’s instructional time and even attend school on Saturday! So it should not
surprise you that in a report compiled by the National Commission on Time and Learning
entitled Prisoners of Time, saying the amount of time in a uniform six-hour school day
is a major unacknowledged design flaw in the U.S. educational system and there is not
enough academic time in schools. There is a fact that people need to acknowledge, every
student is different, they learn at different rates and different ways with each subject.