Shorter School Hours Essay Example

Children have the right to the best education our nation can accommodate them with. People across the world teach kids what they essentially need for life, but here in the United States, we’re different. We don’t learn the life skills we need to technically survive. Where I live, we learn all these things, but they don’t help you in life. Meaning, they need to teach us about money, housing, jobs, bills, etc., everyday lifestyle, the world we live in. Except that’s not happening. Instead, we spend 8 hours a day in our life to just learn about things we could’ve learned in 4 hours. People in Finland, only get 4 hours or less of schooling. So, with that being said, kids K-12 education should not have 8 hours of schooling because it does not cover important life skills and kids are too bored and exhausted to focus.  Studies say academic improvement has expanded while cutting down on school hours. As well as, during the covid pandemic, K-12 education has affected many kids learning. It made kids not want to go to school. Many teachers didn’t want to sit on the computer for hours trying to teach kids on a computer. Also, many kids had eye problems from staring at the screen to long. However, I agree because us kids are exhausted. Exhausted of learning things that aren’t actual real-life problems.

Studies say academic improvement has expanded while cutting down on school hours. Many people believe this is a better way of learning. When you’re in school for 8 hours, you’re not really learning anything but if it were cut down school hours to 4 hours, I believe students would engage more. Us students shouldn’t have to sit 8 hours in school learning a different subject every 45mins or so. Its too much for us kids to take in, so that is why were not engaging as much as you all would like us too. In the article School Start Times; “Impact of Changing Middle and High School Start Times on Sleep, Extracurricular Activities, Homework, and Academic Engagement, it states, “Pushing secondary school start times to let adolescents catch a little more shut eye may improve students’ engagement in school, indicates a new study in the journal Sleep (Sparks par. 1).” This piece of evidence explains how there are many effects when cutting down school hours including kids getting more sleep. Many people have studied and determined that yes cutting school hours should happen. There are many benefits toward parents and kids when cutting the school hours shorter. With that being said, many people have tried and to make a movement when changing school education. However, as you can see there not listening to what our people have to say.

The way we live today isn’t the same as how we lived back in the early days. Kids these days don’t learn by a teacher teaching, instead they are just given work, many times without explanation. Students should be engaged in the learning process but are not, considering the laptops that many have now, make it easy for many students to look up answers.  Many believe that when students did schoolwork on paper without these laptops, students were more engaged, and we learned more than this generation is today. In the article, “Public Education is Failing,” it states, “The “No Child Left Behind” Act simply succeeded in institutionalizing the failed policies of Goals 2000 and School to Work. And that’s why American education continues to fall (DeWeese par. 30). ” This piece of evidence establishes how the people of public education fights for kids who are struggling and need help to succeed. However, this is simply not true for many students in public schools.  Teachers don’t always help the ones who need help succeeding the most and yes, there are kids who don’t care however, many students do.  All students work at their own pace and learn in different ways.  

K-12 education is designed to prepare students for college, vocational school, and the modern workforce. Our children deserve the best education possible, yet we fail to agree on how to realize that vision. Many people don’t see a problem in our education. They think our education is “perfect.” In the article, “The Quality of Public Education Has Not Declined,” they state “...however, complaints about the public schools are so widespread that most Americans are beginning to believe the schools actually have failed. That is not so (Berliner par. 4). Too many students are not getting the education and support they need. Our education system becomes mired in divisive ideological battles among education leaders, policymakers, and the children who deserve a better education.  Also, stated in the article, it says, “The conservative crisis also says the average scores dropped 90 points between the early sixties and mid-seventies, and that certainly scared a lot of Americans (Berliner par. 7).” The US spends more per student than any other country in the region. Furthermore, in terms of mathematics and English test scores, high school graduation rates, and college graduation rates, the United States is below average among industrialized countries. This is not the goal we should be trying to pursue. We should be seeking for success not failure. Something is wrong with our current educational system. 

Furthermore, K-12 education should indeed improve because, as you can see, many of us kids are failing. We are not obtaining the education we necessitate to be successful in life. We need opportunities to learn life skills and become who ever we want to be but with our smart knowledge from the public education system. Then, we can reflect back and say that, yes, the public education system did a good job of teaching me what I needed to know in life and how to do it.