Quoted Text

Obama presses for longer school years
ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
Published: 08:11 a.m., Monday, September 27, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that's got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession's focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

"Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools," the president said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.

U.S. schools through high school offer an average of 180 instruction days per year, according to the Education Commission of the States, compared to an average of 197 days for lower grades and 196 days for upper grades in countries with the best student achievement levels, including Japan, South Korea, Germany and New Zealand.

"That month makes a difference," the president said. "It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It's especially severe for poorer kids who may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren't getting as many educational opportunities."

Obama said teachers and their profession should be more highly honored — as in China and some other countries, he said — and he said he wanted to work with the teachers' unions. But he also said that unions should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He challenged them not to be resistant to change.

And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the help to improve, are still falling short.

"We have got to identify teachers who are doing well. Teachers who are not doing well, we have got to give them the support and the training to do well. And if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go," Obama said....................>>>>.................>>>>.................http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Obama-presses-for-longer-school-years-676009.php

I agree....we're not farmers anymore....and apparently we dont intend to return to such living.......

The government forced all the small farms out of business with their strict regulations and high taxes.

And will everyone agree to paying more school taxes for the extra expenses incurred through a longer school year? This is not a good time to propose such a move, when the people can not afford one more increase in their taxes. And this move would clearly increase school taxes.

A friend and I were just having this discussion.

He agreed with BHO on this one, and while I'd like to - I don't trust him.

A good man once said, watch BOTH hands. While one is serving you pie, the other is taking the knife to your back

It all depends on what they will do with the longer day. If they teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and respect all well and good but if the time is used to indoctrinate the kids with radical ideology like some in this administration would like then it's no good.

Not really understanding why he's going against the teachers union - a vote he needs, and one that he worked so hard to obtain 2 years ago

Quoted from 147

Not really understanding why he's going against the teachers union - a vote he needs, and one that he worked so hard to obtain 2 years ago

He's not...

All he is calling for is a non-binding federal resolution for the STATES to enact a longer school day/year.
Nothing but election year politics..
classic example of greasing both palms

Quoted from 55tbird

He's not...

All he is calling for is a non-binding federal resolution for the STATES to enact a longer school day/year.
Nothing but election year politics..
classic example of greasing both palms

EXACTLY!!

A longer school year has been tossed around for years!  I could care less if they lengthen the school year or not. The amount of time spent in school is not the answer to a good education. It all boils down to good teachers and parents that care and kids brought up knowing that it's not ALL ABOUT THEM!!

Quoted from Shadow

It all depends on what they will do with the longer day. If they teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and respect all well and good but if the time is used to indoctrinate the kids with radical ideology like some in this administration would like then it's no good.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read. I feel dumber for even have read it.
Not the brain cells dripping out of your ears kind of stupid that you feel when watching fox, or listening to corporate talk radio, but close.

I tell ya what. Hows abouts we spend less time celebrating diversity, and more time celebrating math and science?

We are currently ranked at #49 worldwide in both areas, and good old American ingenuity, and sticktoitiveness, is beginning to run thin.

John Wayne died a long time ago, and Macgyver never existed.

The public schools turned into some hippy/commune thing.....and the ability for one to take responsibility for oneself is lacking.....BOTH in schools and at home.....how about skills with a goal....

the hippy/yuppies have made learning into a FEELING......

parents who have to work late---feel bad, buy toy
kid has bad day---feel bad, buy toy
etc etc......it's life.....school and the ability to learn is our entire life....until we are dead

Before you open your ignorant mouth you should really investigate what's being taught in some schools in this country right now.

Quoted from Shadow

Before you open your ignorant mouth you should really investigate what's being taught in some schools in this country right now.

yeah there's a bunch of 'feelgood' crap......and now there's a bunch of teaching to the test.....which leaves out the ability/time to teach the skills for 'self learning'.....

I was taught that in elementary.....NO F'EN CURVE HERE......straight up scores.....bad was bad(even if I FELT bad) and good was good.....I fail to see how the public
school systems inability to draw a line in the sand has moved us forward....it's ills are an reflection of a generation......

Future teachers are required to subscribe to the prescribed ideology, “Every faculty member at our university that trains our teachers must comprehend and commit to the centrality of race, class, culture, and gender issues in teaching and learning, and then frame their teaching and course foci accordingly.”

The goal of critical pedagogy is social transformation, which is the product of the practice of social ‘justice’ at the collective level. Social transformation is accomplished through indoctrination of the young, leading to social transformation of the larger society as succeeding generations inculcate the ‘lessons of awareness’ transmitted to them by their ‘teachers’.

Teachers are urged not to mince words with children about the evils of the existing social order. They should portray “homelessness as a consequence of the private dealings of landlords, an arms buildup as a consequence of corporate decisions, racial exclusion as a consequence of a private property-holder’s choice.” In other words, they should turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists.

Young, impressionable children are no longer being taught to feel good about being Americans. Their schools teachers, who traditionally embody socially approved values, are teaching them to be ashamed of being Americans.

Spreading out from the schools that teach our teachers, this ideology is being inculcated into our nations’ K-12 schools and is anti-American in the most profound meaning of the term. It is a movement that is teaching future generations that capitalism and traditional American values are intrinsically evil.
Critical pedagogy and its advocates, in their vehement antipathy toward capitalism, private property and traditional American values amount to a classic fifth subversive column, no less dangerous to freedom than Communism. Its advocates are seeking to transform western societies by covertly indoctrinating our young, through an essentially clandestine and subversive transformation of its culture.  http://www.verumserum.com/?p=10846

that is so pathetically sad....I dont even know where to begin.....removing the most basic of humanness is WRONG.....the necessity of needing to take care of one's self and change routes if necessary
will lead to lethargy/anger/laziness and your basic feel good/do-gooder(of which is not inherently wrong) but fails to make folks responsible for themselves,,,making them always 'wait for them' to do it....


let's all hear it for the Beatles and "let it be let it be" and "yellow submarine".....yay.....the ability of the hippies to be 'different' has made them their own commune of sameness the oooey/gooey lovefest....

I am me and you are you....oh...we can trade(capitalist) but one of us will always have more/less than the other and honestly I dont care to smell like sandelwood incense......please dont legislate the lovefest
it is always EMPTY.....that is how personal it is.....GET OUT OF MY HOUSE......