Quotes of the day
posted at 10:45 pm on September 28, 2009 by Allahpundit
“’Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press…
Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
‘Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,’ Duncan told the AP. ‘I want to just level the playing field.’”
***
“If President Obama wishes to play school superintendent, here’s an issue that will make much more of a difference to the academic performance of America’s schoolchildren: heed the scientific research about teenagers’ sleep patterns and reverse the crazy trend towards an earlier and earlier start of the school day. The adolescent brain is not operating at 7:20 am, much less at the 6 am wakeup call for 7:20 arrival. It’s not enough for the kids to do their homework. They also have to remember to bring it back to school the following day!”
***
“Home schooling sneaked up on us, or at least on me — Leslie has been mulling it over far longer. About three years ago, she started to burn out on her low-paid, high-stress job as a political organizer for a lefty nonprofit that was working to end the war in Iraq. At the time, we were in the not-so-unusual New York position of spending her entire income, and then some, on paying a nanny to spend far more waking hours with our children than we did…
As for the ‘why’ question: We’re not ready to surrender our kids, and ourselves, to a 10-month-a-year, all-day institution whose primary goal, at least at this age, seems to be teaching kids how to function within a 10-month-a-year, all-day institution. Our kids are learning plenty — not exactly the same things other kindergarteners learn, I suppose, but plenty. They’re making friends and having fun. They can go to the beach on gorgeous fall afternoons, or hit zoos and museums on crisp winter mornings, when other kids are sitting at desks doing worksheets about the letter B. Hell, I wish I could do it…
The four of us are a pretty tight unit — it’s not us against the world, but us in the world, trying to experience the days as they come.”
Blowback
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mmmmmm mmmmm mmmmm
More time for song…..
Starlink on September 28, 2009 at 10:47 PM
Maybe if they were actually taught something other than songs to glorify Barack Hussein Obama…
… They wouldn’t need the extra indoctrination.
Seven Percent Solution on September 28, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Neither is the adult brain. I have to get up early about 24 days a month. It sucks.
BadgerHawk on September 28, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Too bad the kiddies can’t vote….they would impeach him now for this little betrayal.
Kids need a break. Teachers need a break.
HornetSting on September 28, 2009 at 10:49 PM
all are equal in his sight
equal pay for equal work
the time is now
the sun rises with his birth
blatantblue on September 28, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Have these geniuses thought that summer vacation is an industry in certain areas? Let’s just kill the tourism industry as well. School districts are already having trouble paying the bills, it just makes sense to add more time to the school year.
TXMomof3 on September 28, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Everyone who hasn’t had the chance to, and who has some spare time on their hands, should read the last link, then go to read the great discussion in the headlines thread.
BadgerHawk on September 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Yes, the primary purpose of school is school.
exception on September 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM
If Obama wants to lecture everyone on school, he should release his own school records to prove he’s qualified.
ace tomato on September 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM
I think Obama is weak on foreign policy, and downright scary on domestic policy, but he’s right on our public school system. Our children need to attend school longer hours, and more days, and nationalized standards and benchmarks.
The biggest problem with our public schools is that the quality is dictated by the number of kids who come from families that emphasize education-typically upper class socioeconomically.
Many parents rely upon public school as simply child care, and do not get actively involved in their kids’ education beyond elementary school.
sDs61678 on September 28, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Quantity is highly over-rated. Quality, not so much.
ICBM on September 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Here is Arne Duncan’s handiwork. Watch these fine products of the Chicago school system and ask yourself, do you want Arne Duncan having anything to say about your child’s education?
Ted Torgerson on September 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
If he wishes to extend the school year, it’s just one more reason for me to hate him.
Emily M. on September 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Obama just lost the teachers’ unions–ha.
labwriter on September 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Ya, that summer time spent with family and friends is such a waste…
mjbrooks3 on September 28, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Also, where does the Constition give the federal… oh, never mind.
exception on September 28, 2009 at 10:53 PM
I used to have to get on the bus at 6am to be to school by 7:45am. Yes, I lived in a rural area, but I was non-functional in my first class of the day. Just sayin’.
The less kids are in school, the better. It’s not the other way around.
SouthernGent on September 28, 2009 at 10:53 PM
That needs to be a bumpersticker or t-shirt. Send it to one of the fun conservative shirt folks – I’d buy one =)
ace tomato on September 28, 2009 at 10:55 PM
I’m in favor for year-round school but only to put make learning more consistent. I’m afraid that the state-run indoctrination camps would not take the new school calendar seriously and we’d have the same amount of content spread out with plenty of more time to sing hymns to the coward in the White House.
highhopes on September 28, 2009 at 10:55 PM
I’m not an emotional or squeamish guy, but there’s something about watching kids do that to one another that I find highly disturbing. It’s a tough video to watch.
BadgerHawk on September 28, 2009 at 10:55 PM
It’s a reverse McCain who knew he could trash the right all he wanted since they had no other option to vote for him. Who, besides the filthy lying coward in the White House is the NEA going to support?
highhopes on September 28, 2009 at 10:57 PM
Yes, they do!
I’ve been an educator (college) for 18 years. I’ve never taught an 8:00 A.M. class in my life, and I don’t intend to do so. The students are in a semi-coma until at least 10:00. If my colleagues on the primary, secondary, and college ed levels managed to use the time we have with students for actual instruction (e.g., real not revisionist history, business, literature, etc.), we wouldn’t need extended schedules.
anXdem on September 28, 2009 at 10:57 PM
You see the left wants to decrease the amount of time off from school kids have because they have discoverd that the progressive programming that they recive through out the school year dosent hold up very well to long summer vacations where children are essentialy free to do and think as they choose.
Hellrider on September 28, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Interesting to see the lettering above Obama and Glenn Beck’s opening screen to his show appear to be the same font. Not that it has any significance, just an observation.
hoosiermama on September 28, 2009 at 10:58 PM
How were Obama’s/ Sotero’s grades in school ?
Oh nevermind
macncheez on September 28, 2009 at 10:59 PM
The indoctrination is starting even earlier
Seriously, I don’t see a difference between Kim Jong-Il and Obama anymore.
Norwegian on September 28, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Does this mean the one is the President of the PTA as well?
0321_GUY on September 28, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Let’s make all schools like Arne Duncan’s Chicago. This is one of the comments from the video about the child killed there, written by a current student.
MAN THIS IS MESSED UP 2 C THAT SOMEBODY WOULD DO THAT 2 SOME ONE ELSE IT’S FUNNY HOW FENGER KICK KIDS OUT 4 BEING LATE BUT WILL CONTINUE 2 LET THEM ATTEND FENGER WHEN ALL THEY DO IS FIGHT I AM A FELLOW FENGER STUDENT N THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN BIG BRAWLS WITH PEOPLE FROM ONE TERRITORY WITH ANOTHER AND YEA IT CLEARLY SHOES THAT DERRION WAS FIGHTING BUT NOT 1 TIME DID U C HIM WITH A WEAPON WHOEVER DID THIS
SHOULD COME FORWARD THIS BOY FAMILY NEED JUSTICE AND EVERY SINGLE PARENT OF A FENGER STUDENT SHOULD COME 2 DA SCHOOL THE 1ST THING IN THE MORNING BECAUSE NOT 1 PARENT WAS NOTIFIED OF THE SHOOTING INCIDENT UNTIL IT WAS MADE PUBLIC AFTER THIS YOUNG MAN’S LIFE HAD BEEN TAKING. WHATS GOING ON WITH OUR YOUNG PEOPLE IT’S TIME 4 THE COMMUNITY TO STAND UP AND TAKE BACK THE STREETS BEFORE WE LOSE MANY MORE OF OUR TEENS TO THE STREETS. R.I.P DERRION AND JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED IN YOUR NAME
txag92 on September 28, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Oh how I wish I could sleep in `til 6 a.m.
But it doesn`t matter how early they go in or how long they`re in school. If you walk into an academic septic tank, all you`re gonna get is crap.
ThePrez on September 28, 2009 at 11:01 PM
They will be when we’re all planting our own victory gardens in order to eat.
Knucklehead on September 28, 2009 at 11:02 PM
Additional time spent in our government run schools is not the answer. Allowing parents to select a public school (not government run)that competes for their attendance would help. Unfortunately we all continue to pay for the government run variant while being told we are free to choose (at additional expense to us) another option.
Ben Froland on September 28, 2009 at 11:02 PM
This is like the liberal answer to everything. Contrast it to… say… gun control. It works in very small amounts – the liberal thinks more (control) is better, so the liberal solution is always – apply a lot more! When it doesn’t work – it doesn’t mean it’s failed, it means you haven’t done enough.
Take the same thing with welfare… a little goes a long way, so liberals think they should add more (also a form of control). When that doesn’t work – they apply a lot more – and it still doesn’t work. Obviously , thinks the liberal, they need more welfare.
Same with school. It couldn’t possibly be the teachers, or the liberal emphasis on self-esteem over accomplishment. The liberal doesn’t see that self-esteem comes from accomplishment, because the liberal doesn’t think, but only feels.
May as well prepare the kids for a life of standing in bread lines and no breaks between work and more work. Get ‘em ready for an endless, bleak, gray march to death.
This is like that “moral equivalent of war” and the “worker’s armies” that Jonah Goldberg talks about when he discusses Liberal Fascism. This makes school into a production line for adult laborers – consistent with Ezekiel Emanuel’s vision of medical care only for productive workers. … Seriously, when the f*ck did we elect Stalin or Brezhnev?
CPL 310 on September 28, 2009 at 11:02 PM
If a Repub had said this everyone here would agree, but because it’s Obama you’ll get comments like this…
crr6 on September 28, 2009 at 11:03 PM
We had year ’round school here in Florida a few years ago.
That lasted about ten seconds.
Children didn’t like it. For obvious reasons.
Teachers didn’t like it.
Parents didn’t like it. It conflicted with vacation plans.
And, worst of all, guys like me hated it. We look forward to several months of not having to deal with school zones, busses, and stupid children running across busy streets.
Lanceman on September 28, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Obama ruins everything for me! As homeschoolers we enjoy going to all the best vacation places in the off season when it’s cheaper. If Obama gets his way not only will there not be an off season, but there won’t be any vacation spots either! Sheesh
txhsmom on September 28, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Perhaps the kids could use with 25, 30 percent less liberalism during the day?
catmman on September 28, 2009 at 11:04 PM
And just who brain exactly is working at 6:00AM?
Genius…
catmman on September 28, 2009 at 11:04 PM
What a boon for music teachers!
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm
he’s da one
mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm
oh oh Obama
Dhuka on September 28, 2009 at 11:05 PM
We need to break the monopoly of government control of education. We need more choices.
Major urban schools systems graduate 30-40 percent. High school drop outs who can’t read or do simple arithmetic will be unemployed and unemployable with minimum wage around $10.
The Democrat party has returned to its slave owner roots. By destroying public education, demoralizing and indoctrinating children the liberals create a permanent dependent class, in effect owned by the government. With the chains that bind them hidden, they continue to vote for the people who keep them in chains.
Skandia Recluse on September 28, 2009 at 11:06 PM
HELLO!!!!!!!
Mr. Duncan, how many years of experience do YOUR CHILDREN have in the field?
I could go on and on. Is there any segment of America they won’t use for their agenda?
Unbelievable. I’m sorry.
seesalrun on September 28, 2009 at 11:08 PM
“Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.”
Is this the administrations answer to everything?
The kids in Iran should have access to nukes since the kids in other countries have access to nukes.
The kids who don’t have enough money need access to more of other kids money.
catmman on September 28, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Thanks for the link!
Endless humor to be made there.
CPL 310 on September 28, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Duncan, this is why you were a frigging twit of a loser when you drove the Chicago Public School System into the ground!
The problem is not the calendar the schools are following, you moron! It’s the less-than-quality education you and your teachers unions cronies are hoisting on kids, generally turning the schools into mills that churn out students who graduate from high school with a 2nd grade rate reading ability, while you rant and scream over home-schooled kids who get a rich and quality-enriched education that puts them heads and shoulders above any kid being dragged through the public school system!
And you know what, Duncan, you damn well know that is the problem, but you are too much of a cowardly tail-between-his-legs gutless wonder to do anything about it!
pilamaye on September 28, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Obama just lost the teachers’ unions–ha.
labwriter on September 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM
seesalrun on September 28, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Isn’t B. Hussein Obama amazing? He is a foreign policy genius, he understands military theory better than any general, he understands health care better than any doctor, car-manufacturing better than any auto exec, tax policy better than any banker or economist… and now he is here to tell us how our kids should be schooled!
Doesn’t he just rock your world? I am thinking about singing a song in praise of him.
kiltedscotsman5 on September 28, 2009 at 11:12 PM
I never let my schooling interfere with my education.
- Mark Twain
MB4 on September 28, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Obama has the credibility of damp fungus when it comes to putting on this “I care about education!” charade of his. See: DC voucher program.
Bruce in NH on September 28, 2009 at 11:16 PM
i walk five miles everyday in the snow to my school.
even in september.
blatantblue on September 28, 2009 at 11:18 PM
The students will learn less and less about more and more and will graduate knowing nothing about everything.
Tav on September 28, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Go COWBOYS!
HornetSting on September 28, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Uphill both ways?
Knucklehead on September 28, 2009 at 11:20 PM
So when is He going to suggest a ‘common uniform’…..
GarandFan on September 28, 2009 at 11:20 PM
yep
and downhill on ice both ways
blatantblue on September 28, 2009 at 11:22 PM
Seriously, I don’t see any difference between crr6 and Roman Polanski.
fronclynne on September 28, 2009 at 11:23 PM
How about ditching for a start the BS self-esteem classes, teaching REAL literature instead of little-known and -accepted ‘minority’ writers, and dumping the idea that basic math is inherently ‘racist’?
Liam on September 28, 2009 at 11:23 PM
If Bama were “working the fields” this would be a far better place; anyone wanna give him a shovel? (Actually he’s digging a pretty goodly hole with his mouth.)
jgdp on September 28, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Nude?
HornetSting on September 28, 2009 at 11:23 PM
His grades were probably based on the affirmative action curve.
His total lack of knowledge of anything except rallying the stupid is evidence of this.
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:24 PM
i am now yes
blatantblue on September 28, 2009 at 11:25 PM
That’s the idea.
Our government schools have already failed. Keeping kids there for more hours without changing anything about what is being done isn’t going to do anything constructive.
What Obama wants is more time with your kids for statist indoctrination, the more his people have them means the less time YOU have them.
mmmm mmmm mmmm
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:27 PM
You don’t think that they won’t be compensated for the extra work?
thomasaur on September 28, 2009 at 11:27 PM
highhopes, you do have a point.
labwriter on September 28, 2009 at 11:29 PM
Once again this president thinks the states should have nothing to say about his grand, imperial pronouncements. The federal gov’t DOES NOT CONTROL education. That is a local issue.
Warner Todd Huston on September 28, 2009 at 11:31 PM
I graduated from a small Catholic school, with 20 students in my graduating class. The school had almost no money and couldn’t pay the teachers any sort of a worthy wage, yet each graduating class there earned over 1 million dollars in scholarships.
Our school day? 8:30 AM to 2:30PM. And we had 3 months off, not 2.
I never took a history course in college, up through graduation that challenged what I learned there (plus what I learned on my own because I was passionate about it).
Education needs to be privatized. It needs to be taken away from the Federal and State governments and returned to the communities.
Before the Feds got involved our education system led the world.
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Wow! I never thought Arne Duncan would break ranks with Pol Pot.
He and O’Hitler Youth must have something better in mind.
David2.0 on September 28, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Someone needs to inform the rocket scientist, Duncan, that our Gregorian calendar and much of our culture and traditions are based upon the agrarian economy. Moving from nomadic existence to agrarian is what marked the great advance of Man. Did Arne Duncan ever go to school, himself, or did he train to be stupid?
I’ve said it before in comments, here, these people think they are the new French Revolution. They are out to destroy any and all tradition, just for the sake of destroying it. I wouldn’t be surprised if these super-geniuses didn’t try to actually bring back the French Revolutionary Calendar – which is the calendar designed for all those who are “too advanced” to be bothered with the disgusting details of agrarian filth, to be a thumb at all tradition, and to make it awfully difficult for Judeo-Christian tradition to carry on. It makes a total break with any dating of the past and takes us all into a new world devoid of any connection to anything. 10 day weeks (for no good reason), metricized time (10 hour days …) Nothing but change for the sake of change. Just what the Washington junta is looking for.
Or … they can pick that other moronic calendar that bears no relation to the agrarian culture, at all, that calendar of primitives that has no use in modern society – the islamic calendar. That’s another winner.
And someone needs to inform Arne the Ant that the federal government doesn’t run the nation’s school systems. Small detail, I know.
progressoverpeace on September 28, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Barack Hussein Obama
extends the hours at school,
does he have experience?
No, it’s cause he’s cool
mmmm mmmm mmm.
Barack Hussein Obama
causing America much harm,
The media’s all over it,
“just look at Michelle’s arms”.
mmmm, mmmm, mmm.
dthorny on September 28, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Ah, but it doesn’t do you good in the long run, when you intentionally crap on your base, challenging them with “oh, so what, it’s not as if you are going to vote for the OTHER party, right?”
The Republicans did that to us for years, and what did it get them? We didn’t vote for Obama, sure, but we just simply didn’t VOTE AT ALL. Demoralizing your base to not vote at all is just as bad as if they voted against you.
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:32 PM
If public schools were about actually teaching our nation’s children anything useful, this could be considered the “War on Ignorance”. But since it is the public school system itself that is perfectly designed to keep kids ignorant, it most resembles a “War on Parenting”.
By 2040, the Presidential race will be decided by who can put a condom on a cucumber the fastest.
Left Coast Right Mind on September 28, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I went to a 6-year school from 7-12th grade. We were on double sessions for the entire time. They gave the kids in high school the early classes–lots used the afternoons for jobs, etc. My first class of the day was at 6:00 a.m. Honestly? It never occurred to me to think of it as a hardship. Who knew I was such a victim? This knee-jerk junk about what kids can & can’t do makes me sick. “Oh, they can’t possibly think before 10:00 a.m.” What b.s.
labwriter on September 28, 2009 at 11:34 PM
ooo-eee.
Fortunata on September 28, 2009 at 11:35 PM
The public education system is about as functional and effective as the public healthcare “option” will be.
The government school system is all about teaching children to be subservient servants of the government. And it’s all about the left indoctrinating children and undermining their parental upbringing.
If schools dumped the social engineering and just taught facts and critical thinking, they could CUT the school year and the school day and achieve a greater result.
The problem is the educational system isn’t about education, it’s about indoctrination. The fact that conservatives still exist amongst teen and twenty somethings tells the left that they are giving the parents (and the kids) too much time OUTSIDE the “mmm mmm mmm” zone, so they need more time (translation: CONTROL) of them to prevent this.
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:38 PM
Keep in mind, the Dear Leader has no experience with this. All he has ever known is how to get good grades. We think….
BobMbx on September 28, 2009 at 11:38 PM
all are healed by His hands
Obama
MM MM
blatantblue on September 28, 2009 at 11:40 PM
What Presidential Race? Those were, like, so 1780-2012-ish.
BobMbx on September 28, 2009 at 11:41 PM
“mmm … mmmm … mmm”
For a minute there I thought Ken Starr released the audio tapes of Monica.
fogw on September 28, 2009 at 11:41 PM
The next argument from the left: Home schooling is racist.
Poor people cannot home school and are forced to use the public school system. Blacks and other minority groups are predominantly of the lower social strata. Ergo, home schooling is racist and it should be outlawed.
amkun on September 28, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Agreed with all of you saying that the school day needs to be used better. I teach at a Catholic school – same amount of hours in school as the other kids. By the time our kids are in 8th grade they are all taking freshman level math, science and history – in fact, this year I am teaching the 8th graders 10th grade level Geometry. They complete a 8-10 page research paper with footnotes and bibliography. For their final in 7th grade geography, they are given a big blank piece of paper on which they draw the entire earth – every country and its capital, all major rivers, moutain ranges and bodies of water and are given extra credit for naming major imports and exports, religions and forms of gov’t of each country. Oh, all of this is accomplished with us still having time in the day for daily Mass and a 45 min religion class on top of the many enrichment programs.
Any transfer students we get from public schools are already extremely behind – even if it’s only the 2nd or 3rd grade – in academics, organization, study skills, and the list goes on. We just had a 6th grader tranfer in who doesn’t know his multiplication tables. Sometimes I wonder what they actually ARE teaching in public schools?!? Aside from the pro-left, feel good, I’m-ok-you’re-ok agenda.
miConsevative on September 28, 2009 at 11:46 PM
Gotta keep the proles thinking they actually have a say. My guess is that the President will be Obama’s head in a glass jar a la Futurama.
Left Coast Right Mind on September 28, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Catchy stuff. *snaps fingers*
Emily M. on September 28, 2009 at 11:48 PM
The obvious counter argument is that the inner city government schools are racist, since they TRAP minorities into a failed institution with no alternative way out.
The left will counter-counter with what all socialists do best, tear the achievers down to being equal with the failures, ie: spreading misery evenly.
wildcat84 on September 28, 2009 at 11:48 PM
I always get up at the crack of dawn! (Which is after 10am in December in SW Alaska).
tbear44 on September 28, 2009 at 11:51 PM
Why is CJ going after MM?
d1carter on September 28, 2009 at 11:53 PM
I don’t know anything about this, but I’ll answer anyway: because he’s a jackass.
Emily M. on September 28, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Of course if obummer didn’t interrupt valuable class time to give “inspirational” speeches…
chewydog on September 28, 2009 at 11:58 PM
School where we are at now starts at 7:45 for the little one which is 45mins later that her last school and for my son he starts later by 1 hour. She went from 2 recess to 1 recess and that recess is at the end of school. Here they have a 9 week on 2 week off. Not sure how long the summer vacation is. It’s crazy why Zero thinks the kids need to spend more time in school. Then to come home and do homework and sports and try to have a social life. Let kids be kids now a days life is rough when you get out of high school.
Like that one Marine (I think he was a Marine)
Leave my Kids ALONE!!!
Brat4life on September 29, 2009 at 12:00 AM
+28 +23 + 41
Now, about these schoos. I wonder if these education geniuses have even considered a simpler fact – if schools are forced to go longer into the summer, how many kids are gonna suffer in buildings without air-conditioning?
From my own experience (K-12 in Catholic schools in MA never having a.c.) it could be pure hell at times toward the end of May into June (even without the
global warmingclimate change – ha!).Are kids gonna be paying attention anymore during these extended schedules if they are fighting off heat? Doubtful. Are teachers gonna be able to control unruly kids who can already be a handul? Hardly.
How many schools/districts are going to afford to upgrade, pay teachers for more hours, bus the kinds in more days, etc. etc? Typical lib/progressive “thinking”. A disaster waiting to happen.
red winger on September 29, 2009 at 12:05 AM
This is because mom and dad (if there is a dad) both work. So the kids have to be out of the house early and the older kids need to get out of school really early to watch the younger kids.
D0WNT0WN on September 29, 2009 at 12:09 AM
Actually walked a mile to school in blinding snow and ice for many years! Today,the bus picks them up even a block away!
My little guys heard about the obamascarepair and its the talk of the school today! No on extended hours, summer vacation is for family and friends and making fun memories. Teachers need a break too. All they can do is teach by the CRCT tests and have to cram it all in by deadlines.
As it is there are hours of homework nightly in public education and I ask myself every night, “wth are they doing all day? How come my child does not know how to even figure out how to do this work! Sylvan is making alot of money off of me.
Coastal Paradise on September 29, 2009 at 12:11 AM
When I had my kids, my main goal was to teach them to love learning before the public schools could take it away from them.
Connie on September 29, 2009 at 12:12 AM
Sadly, my kids have had to unlearn much of what they learned in the public schools — and we aren’t just talking about stuff on the lesson plans either.
unclesmrgol on September 29, 2009 at 12:36 AM
Let’s see,
Obama served on a board with marxist domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and together they blew over 100 million dollars for education improvement that ended up producing ZERO RESULTS.
Taking advice from Obama on education would be like taking Quarterback lessons from Jake Delhomme.
Absolutely stupid.
Baxter Greene on September 29, 2009 at 12:37 AM
More hours of stupid is just more stupid.
29Victor on September 29, 2009 at 12:39 AM
You know, this is the statement that really bothers me. Let’s see, the US has been, at least up until Obummer’s term, the number one economic powerhouse in the world, has emerged as the number one superpower because Ronald Reagan had a spine and was the first country to land a man on the moon. We’ve explored the vast reaches of space, put remote controlled rovers on Mars, and have a high-tech military that is superior to that of any other nation. Our nation’s citizens enjoy a standard of living unseen anywhere else, our nation’s poor live lives superior to that of people in the middle class in numerous countries.
Yet, somehow, we should be following what other nations are doing. In health care, welfare, government, energy production and use, or how we educate our students we are continually excoriated in how the US is so out of step with the rest of the industrialized world.
Wouldn’t an intelligent person be asking the question, since we have done so well and have prospered so much, shouldn’t other countries be looking at how we do things and not the other way around?
AZfederalist on September 29, 2009 at 12:44 AM
I started school in 1966 -67. Even then I thought it was crazy for us to be out of school all summer long. Even though I enjoyed the summer break, I thought it was crazy.
SuperManGreenLantern on September 29, 2009 at 12:48 AM
His results in Chicago speak for themselves. Speak poorly of his tenure but boy do they speak loudly.
jukin on September 29, 2009 at 12:50 AM
It’s not about education, it’s about narcissism…
The more time the kids spend in the school, the more time they can sing their love songs to The Won.
mmm mmm mmm
Barack Hussein Obama
SouperConservative on September 29, 2009 at 1:00 AM
Hmmmmm—agrarian society. Hmmmm—send the kids to year round school even though in many parts of the country we still have an agrarian society. Hmmmm illegals shipped in from all over working in OUR fields because no one here wants to work in what’s left of our agrarian society. Hmmmmmm–is it entirely possible that our problem with illegal aliens could be rectified if the little darlings actually WORKED in the fields in the summer. My parents did it (of course my dad was raised on a farm and did it everyday of his young life, not just during three months of summer). And both of my parents are retired teachers–trust me when I say TEACHERS RELISH THOSE THREE MONTHS OFF FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S LITTLE DARLINGS. My offspring said it succinctly as we were driving by a field near our house that was undoubtedly being worked by undocumented workers: “You know, they ought to make kids my age work in those fields.” (She had already started working and making payments on a new car by that time.) As we passed by some kids her age, she says sarcastically, “Get a Job!”
3 months in summer can be productive months: kids can work to establish college funds–maybe rely a little less on the government or whatever for their educations. Year round school….more taxes….stupid idea….doesn’t make the kids smarter, just more exhausted.
Driefromseattle on September 29, 2009 at 1:11 AM
Hmmmmm—agrarian society. Hmmmm—send the kids to year round school even though in many parts of the country we still have an agrarian society. Hmmmm illegals shipped in from all over working in OUR fields because no one here wants to work in what’s left of our agrarian society. Hmmmmmm–is it entirely possible that our problem with illegal aliens could be rectified if the little darlings actually WORKED in the fields in the summer. My parents did it (of course my dad was raised on a farm and did it everyday of his young life, not just during three months of summer). And both of my parents are retired teachers–trust me when I say TEACHERS RELISH THOSE THREE MONTHS OFF FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S LITTLE DARLINGS. My offspring said it succinctly as we were driving by a field near our house that was undoubtedly being worked by undocumented workers: “You know, they ought to make kids my age work in those fields.” (She had already started working and making payments on a new car by that time.) As we passed by some kids her age, she says sarcastically, “Get a Job!”
3 months in summer can be productive months: kids can work to establish college funds–maybe rely a little less on the government or whatever for their educations. Year round school….more taxes….stupid idea….doesn’t make the kids smarter, just more exhausted.
Driefromseattle on September 29, 2009 at 1:11 AM
Maybe if Obama released his own school records…
… we wouldn’t be so cynical.
Seven Percent Solution on September 29, 2009 at 1:26 AM
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