Common Core PLUS Longer School Days

The non-elected Oregon State Board of Education voted in January to increase the number of hours kids are to receive instructional time in Oregon schools.

The biggest increase will hit the elementary schools which will go from 810 hours to 900 hours per year. Increases for higher grades are 990 hours in 9th-11th grade and 966 hours in 12th grade. Breaking it down so you can see what it looks like more easily, the 90 hour increase in elementary school is adding roughly 3 full weeks of school.

The increase comes as a way to better prepare students for college. We all know that every single child will go onto college, no?

Students will now not only be subjected to the Common Core, they will be subjected to more and more hours of it and countless more hours of behavior modification.

Of course the state doesn’t want parents to worry about increased school hours cutting into summer vacation. No, the increased time will come at the cost of “non-educational” field trips (of which we have already lost most of), classroom parties, and assemblies.

We know that PE, art, and music classes have been cut from many districts. The only saving grace was that the teachers were allowed to have holiday parties (non-religious) and there was the occasional assembly (where so much of the push to conform and behavioral programs were foisted onto the unsuspecting students), and once in a blue moon, a trip to the local movie theater at Christmas time to celebrate the last day before the holiday break.

Okay, so maybe the behavioral assemblies won’t be missed, however, the assemblies that feature games that pit teachers against students, music, and plays put on by the students will be gone. I’m guessing that recess will be cut once again.

Schools in Oregon will be more factory like than they are now. I wonder how long it will be before they start making the kiddos clock in in the morning, clock out for bathroom and lunch breaks, and clock back in when returning to the class.

Kids should be allowed to be kids, even at school. Teachers should be allowed to teach at whatever pace the classroom at large is able to learn. The money required to boost the hours, especially at K-8 levels, could come at the cost of laying off teachers, therefore creating even larger class sizes.

With the exception of the handful of wonderful teachers I know of that are absolute artists in the field of education, I can think of nothing good coming to education in the near future.

All work and no play make our children perfectly brainwashed cogs in the machine and pawns of the powers that be who will use their newly minted soldiers to affect the change they want for the United States.