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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 GLOSSIES 
13

Americans Work Hard, But Their Kids Are Lazy

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(Newser) – Americans may jaw about their grueling work weeks and meager vacations, but their kids? While European and Asian children are logging in long school days and pounding out homework, US students are taking time off, the Economist reports. With one of the world's shortest school weeks and longest summers—which inspired the term "summer learning loss"—Americans need not wonder why they're falling behind.

Politicians occasionally stir up the issue—President Obama has told schools to "rethink the school day"—but unions, summer camps, and sentimental parents have lobbied against extra study hours. Only about 1,000 of 90,000 US schools have added to the standard 6-1/2 hour day. Meanwhile, "brain work is going the way of manual work" in the world economy, says the Economist, "to whoever will provide the best value for money."

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13 comments
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JonmarkP
Jun 13, 09 5:19 PM CDT
I finished the 2nd grade in a Belgian school. When I moved to the US, the new school's testing indicated I should be in the 7th grade, skipping 5 full grades. My parents went ahead and put me in third grade so I'd be with kids my own age, but it felt like being in a school for the learning disabled. I'm nothing special in the brains department - school kids in America are capable of learning far more than they're taught. They simply aren't challenged. I don't know why this is so, but I know it's NOT the fault of the kids. So far as I know, America is the only country where a student can take a college physics or chemistry course without calculus. Again, not the students' fault. Reply
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Deebles
Jun 13, 09 9:55 PM CDT
Talk about being old, when I took calculus in high school they handed me a slide rule. A very nice slid rule in a leather case, but a slide rule all the same. Two years later in college, they took it away, bummer, and handed me a calculator which to this day I like less. That's why I loved the movie Apollo 13: nothing but toggle switches and slide rules.
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Fondue
Jun 14, 09 9:49 AM CDT
"They simply aren't challenged. I don't know why this is so, but I know it's NOT the fault of the kids." My opinion is that it gives the appearance of higher levels of achievement.
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flame821
Jun 14, 09 6:42 PM CDT
Fondue is correct; this has gotten particularly bad since the 'No Child Left Behind' bull went into effect. Now children are basically taught (the entire year) how to take and score well on one single test in order to keep the schools from being taken over by the Govn. It is horrendous and it will come back to bite us in the tush in a decade when these children graduate and can't even hope to compete on a global level.
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+1
kokuaguy
Jun 13, 09 5:37 PM CDT
Thanks for this JmP. Parents who are two busy with multiple jobs (or job hunting) are not able to supervise their children's activities properly or pay sufficient attention to their educations. Education reform is one kind of initiative that all of us can become involved in on the local level. I ran across a great Mark Twain quote that would work very well here. I'll be back. Reply
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