What if students and teachers had to stay in school longer than they already do in order to help improve student scores?
The idea of extending school hours in order to achieve greater academic achievement will not truly help students get better grades or learn more. Even though some studies have found that prolonging school days to the school year does dedicate more focus on academics, there are always other factors involved that help improves achievement, including the quality of instruction or the classroom environment. In addition, there is no direct correlation that an increased number of days to the school year can help students achieve more. In fact, the cons of having more school days outweigh the number of pros.
Without a doubt, there are more consequences than benefits if school days were to be extended. One of them would be the fact that the cost to pay teachers and other staff members would exponentially increase. Additionally, teachers will have shorter time grading papers and have meetings with parents if they are spending more time instructing.
As for students, not only will they be more tired, but they will also be more stressed.
For instance, students would also probably have trouble paying attention or even staying awake in class because of exhaustion due to extended school hours. When students start to blank out and lose focus they will not process anything that is being said. Obviously, there is not anything good coming out of that.
Most students also have extracurricular activities and if school days were really to be extended, naturally they would have to get rid of some activities due to schedule conflicts. Having fewer extracurricular activities would affect students because without them students might not be able to experience social development and growth.
Extending school time because people believe that students are not improving due to teaching techniques is not going to solve the problem. Additionally, there is no study that truly proves that extended school days truly help students learn or improve in terms of testing. According to data compiled from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, students in the US already stay in school longer than students in other countries, yet students’ scores in the US have failed to increase. In fact, shortening school days would be more beneficial to students in terms of academic achievements and mental health. With shorter school hours, this can permit students to have more time to complete homework, study for tests, and do more extracurricular activities. Most importantly, students are able to get more time to sleep and regain their energy for school, which in return the students would be ready to focus during class and truly learn and pick up concepts.
Some say that extended school days help students achieve more academic goals, but this makes students lose their free time. This means that they are more likely to focus more on school than anything else, which can lead them to stay up late at night trying to complete homework or study for tests. Consequently, students will be too tired to focus during class and will be drained throughout the school day.
In conclusion, schools should not extend school days or hours to the school year to try and “achieve” greater academic achievements because these actions do not help improve these goals in any way. As a result, instead of trying to tire out teachers and students, schools should just focus on how they are teaching.
