What Will The Teacher Fairy Put Under My Pillow?

I think there is an interesting parallel to be drawn between this recent TIME Magazine article titled, "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin" and a longer school day and year.

Don't really have a clue as to what it is, but hey, I gotta type something right now, don't I? I mean if a blogger blogs in the forest and no one is there to comment... aw, forget it, I am WAY off track.

No, seriously, the point is, that exercise without attention to diet will not make one thinner. And so it also goes that longer school hours and more days in the classroom will not automatically make a student more student-y. Applying poor teaching strategies, using drill-n-kill worksheets, having kids read the textbook then answer the textbook questions in the back of each chapter and then have them do it over again for longer durations of time -- well, simply put, these are not the answer to our educational ills.

Yes, I firmly believe we need more time in our classrooms. I do think the school year is too short. (After all, having the summer off was an agricultural need of society back in the day; these days the prime agricultural involvement of a teenager's summer, if there is one at all, revolves around the agricultural product known as weed). The school day could use more hours as well. (I mean, as all studies show, the "witching hour" -- that is, the time when kids get into the most trouble (i.e. fights, sex, drugs, shoplifting, and so on) -- is between 3-7 p.m. A longer day that doesn't start as early -- so the kids aren't as groggy -- doesn't strike me as such a bad thing. Sure, there are details to work out -- and the inconvenience to all of us would be tremendous -- but if we are seeking to best serve the kids, we do, in my opinion, need a longer school year and a longer school day.

But what goes on during these extended hours has got to become more productive. That's the real issue. Doing something poorly for longer amounts of time isn't going to make one any better at it. Doing it better will.

The jogger that eats jelly doughnuts doesn't lose as much weight as the non-jogger who does not eat jelly doughnuts (and all akin junk food). Okay, I get it. And as much as we need to change our schedule (which we do), we moreso need to improve our intellectual nutritional offerings... that's where we're gonna make the real "weight" gains.

So what's the answer? PD!!

PD -- professional development -- is the lynchpin. Without better preparing our nation's teachers to do a more efficient, effective, more productive job, we are just re-arranging deck chairs. I mean let's not mistake activity for productivity (to borrow a phrase).

And really, who does not need PD? I mean without people showing me how to bring things like nings into my classroom this year, it ain't just gonna appear under my pillow the night before school as delivered by the Teacher Fairy.

PD: the national conversation not enough people are having.

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Comment by Artie O'Connor on August 13, 2009 at 7:13am: Having worked in a school wth a longer school year I agree that moe time doesnot alway equate to better students. If input directly related to output, over eaters would just explode. Time must be used effectively and efficiently. It is not the clock that teaches, it is the student that learns.

Comment by Alan Sitomer on August 13, 2009 at 9:10am: "over eaters would just explode." You say this like it's a bad thing.

LOL!

Comment by Joe Fatheree on August 13, 2009 at 12:37pm: At this time, I am not an advocate of either a longer school day or year. Honestly, I think there are things that can be learned outside the school day, and lessons taught by people who are not professional educators that are just as important for our kids. It is important for us an nation to understand that point. Maybe if we did, some of the weight of the world might be lifted from the backs of teachers and applied evenly to all members of the learning community.

Summer vacation is a time to fill the tank. It is a time when all kids should have the opportunity to laugh, explore, and relax. Yes, I said relax. Think of all the health problems we could avoid if we only learned how to slow down and enjoy life. Our kids are wired to do just that. Unfortunately, as adults, we try to steal away their childhoods as quickly as possible. This is usually done under the guide of progress. I am not so sure our forefathers didn't have it right, agrarian calendar or not.

I do know that not all kids are blessed with great summers. In fact, summer and time away from school can be a startling experience for many of our students. OK, let's deal with that. Here are a few of my suggestions for reform.

1. Let's identify the problem and create a plan to address our needs.
2. Understand that there is no magic bullet. We can't create one plan to address everything for everybody. Flexibility is a key point. Make summer school or extended days optional, and by all means don't create them so we can pass out a million more worksheets to put kids to sleep.
3. Alan's suggestion of pd is very important. However, there needs to be buy in and participation from the administration to make this happen. Accountability is missing in most schools. The question, how are the dollars I am spending improving student learning, needs to be asked? Billions of dollars are wasted every year with nothing to show for it. However, that doesn't mean pd doesn't need to be offered. In fact, it is critical. However, the way we deliver it and integrate the knowledge gained from those experiences into our daily lessons does.

I hope the teacher fairy shakes a little common sense dust under all of our pillows, and some time soon. Change does need to occur, but not at the expense of our kids. They only get one shot at being little once. We need to value youth for what it is....one of the greatest blessings in life.
-joe