I was disturbed last semester when a student came to the reference desk and told me she was writing a paper for her Composition class about why schools should have longer hours.  Naturally, she was an Education student and was eager for a future in teaching children as much as she possibly could.  While I admire her enthusiasm, I do not believe more time spent in school will improve the current state of education.

            With teachers becoming responsible for covering more and more content areas, as well as enrichment, “character education”, and other equally vague concepts of education, it is no wonder they are calling for more time to get their job done.  But I guarantee that the students would not support a longer school day or a longer school year.  And I see no reason for it to be forced upon them.  Children inherently want to learn.  They just don’t necessarily want to do it in a classroom.

            What I propose is that we charge parents with the enrichment and the character education.  Parents that place the education of their children solely at the hands of the public school system need to take back a lot of the responsibility.  Yes, schools should still teach math and reading and history and a whole boatload of other subjects.  (And they should do it in a way that engages students and involves them in the learning process.)  But they should learn how to become good citizens and good human beings from their parents and other caregivers, even the community at large.

            A full time college student taking 12 credit hours spends approximately 12 hours in a classroom per week and is expected to spend approximately 24 hours studying (2 hours for every hour spent in class).  That equals 36 hours.  Elena Rocha, Senior Education Analyst for the Center for American Progress, proposes expanding the school day to a 8:00am to 5:00pm day.  Even if we allowed for a full hour for lunch, that is a 40 hour week!  Are we really willing to equivocate school learning to a full time job?  What about family values?  Is less time with parents and siblings and other caregivers really going to produce better citizens?  I can only assume Ms. Rocha’s proposal includes eliminating homework as the thought of more than 40 hours of schoolwork in a week is too daunting.

            Parent involvement in a child’s life is critical.  A parent’s influence typically supersedes that of a teacher’s, as it should.  I think rather than increasing the time spent in school, we need to increase the time spent reaching out to parents.  Teach parents how to further their children’s education.  Provide free admission to museums for families so parents have more ways of giving their children the necessary extra-curricular enrichment.  Form community groups where parents can exchange ideas and strategies with other parents as well as teachers.  If given the proper resources, I am sure that parents will rise to the occasion of providing an optimum learning environment for their children.