Teach Smarter, Not Longer

It has been said that President Obama would like for schools to begin at 7:30 a.m. and not end until 5:00 p.m.  He is concerned that the United States is behind compared to other countries. While I do agree that Public education is in need of improvement, I do not believe longer days is the right answer.  It is hard enough to get teenagers to stay in school without taking away all of their free time.  Why would we force children to attend school for longer hours than some of their parents work?  Before we make such drastic changes, we should consider other ways to help our children.

For example, we all know that children (and people in general) learn differently.  There are actually "labels" for different styles of learning.  How is it possible for us to know this, yet not use this knowledge in teaching our children?  Classrooms are randomly thrown together and teachers vary in their teaching styles.  Why not test children to find out their learning style and divide the classrooms that way? 

Visual learners will be provided with a teacher that understands and can provide what they need to learn.  These students can usually see it once and get it.  Of course, it has to be done the right way first!  The hands-on students learn better by doing, not by listening to a teacher speak (blah, blah, blah).  They need interaction.  The auditory learners need better explainations than what is provided in a book.  These learners often have trouble reading and understanding concepts on their own.

If public schools spent more time and energy catering to children's needs and actually helping them learn, the children would retain more information in less time.  We should not punish the children for our mistakes.  We should find a way to encourage children to want to learn.

You can read more of my ideas here.