Calls for Change in the Scheduling of the School Day. A groundswell of support for lengthening the schoolday and the schoolyear joins increasingly rigorous curriculum design and the imposition of exit-exams as the latest thrust in educational reform; designed to address “a troika of sociological forces:
more parents working outside the home; research showing
that children get into trouble during the late afternoon and
lose educational ground during summer breaks; and the
higher standards that have been embraced from coast to
coast over the last decade.” But how does having our children spend more hours in school square with the stultification they already face in the classroom, where financial constraints have increasingly stripped any richness and breadth from what they’re taught? New York Times