President Obama alienated yet another key constituency this morning when he appeared on NBC and said that students should go to school longer. Yet even as children rued the day this Kenyan Socialist appointed himself president -- right? -- the rest of us should applaud. Basing education policy on outdated agriculture calendars is not the best idea, especially when kids the rest of the world over are doing better by going to school longer. Even simply shifting the schedule on school vacations could be useful; if students took more, shorter breaks, you could avoid the knowledge atrophy that comes from the long eight-week break over the summer. While teachers might not like to give up their summer breaks, the idea could be adopted through plans to up teacher pay and further reinforce teaching as a serious profession. Here is a CAP report on the costs and benefits of increasing learning time, and a report [PDF] from the National Center on Time and Learning (good name!) that is very bullish on the benefits of extended learning time.
-- Tim Fernholz
