By Lynsey Chediak (guest columnist)

According to an informal poll of the senior class, during their junior year, each student spent three hours on homework per night, if not more. If they played a sport, then practice lasted at least two hours. That’s a total of five hours of busy time after school. Excluding driving time, the average junior at Country Day isn’t done with homework until after 8:45 p.m.

Does that sound like a lot of free time, President Obama? No.

Yet Obama has proposed to extend both the school day and the school year.

He hopes to help students of a lower level excel. However, extending the school day would keep all students at school longer, including those who are already ahead.

Regardless of their political beliefs, I can guarantee that there aren’t many students pushing for Obama’s proposition. In the senior class alone there are only three people who agree.

“We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” Obama said.

“That calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for the 21st-century economy.”

According to junior KJ Park, a native Korean who lived in Korea while she was in lower and middle school, the school system in the United States is much more beneficial, even if the school days are shorter.

“The [Korean] school day is from 7-4, but after school we have a study session from 6-11 at night. It’s not technically required, but you have to be there,” Park said.

This is very similar to the after-school study program that Obama is suggesting. It wouldn’t be “required” but students would have to go if they didn’t want to get behind.

“As far as extracurriculars go, you had one elective such as P.E., soccer, or swimming on the last week of every month for one day. That’s it,” Park said.

Changing to this schedule would not allow students to participate in nearly as many extracurricular activities or sports programs. Not to mention how it would add to the child obesity problem in the United States.

It would be all academics, all the time.

Another difference in the South Korean schedule is the before-school or after-school tutoring, which Obama is anxious to add to our school systems.

“Since my mom was a teacher, we would have to arrive at school at 6 a.m., which is when the first class of the day starts for those that need extra tutoring. Then I would stay at school until 11 p.m. for after-school tutoring,” Park said.

Park didn’t do homework because the only time she had assignments was when she had finals—four times a year.

It is up to students to learn the material. They are graded only on the four finals that they take. While this should be easier for students, it isn’t.

“Since everyone tutors after school you are expected to know things that you are not taught in class,” Park said.

Even if it was necessary to extend the school day, at the rate Obama’s spending money there’s no feasible way that the government would be able to fund a new program.

In recent months Obama has managed to get through a $838 billion stimulus bill, which is the largest government stimulus since World War II, according to Fox News.

From that package $83 billion of additional money was added to the public school system.
But for Obama and the newly seated Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, an additional $83 billion just isn’t enough because Duncan had asked for an additional $150 billion.

Duncan complained about not receiving the extra money.

“It is not nearly as much as we need,” Duncan said.

Really. Well, let’s see. If you can’t make ends meet with an additional $83 billion per year, then our public school system has much larger problems than extending the school year and the school day.

As it is, in 2007 the public schools spent $553 billion according to an article on heritage.com, and each year that number increases by 6 percent due to over-spending. How much more would it cost for this new proposed plan? And, more importantly, how would they be able to manage additional money without over-spending even more?

Current advocates are pushing for a 200-day school year, equivalent to that of Thailand, Scotland and the Netherlands.

Are Thailand, Scotland, or the Netherlands known for having brilliant doctors, lawyers, nurses, businessmen and people of all occupations? Is Thailand one of the top leaders in the world economy?

Absolutely not.

Clearly, Obama needs to re-evaluate his previous life as a student and think about what he is imposing on the life of the everyday student—not just about a way for him to look good to foreign countries.

By Will Banks (guest columnist)

Following Obama’s controversial speech to American students on Sept. 8, the president began to unveil his plan to reform the school system.

Obama’s “Cradle to College” plan focuses on improving the public school system by increasing funding for programs (especially early childhood education), supporting good teachers, firing poor performing teachers, and, yes, lengthening the school year.

The proposal to lengthen the school year and to increase the school day has created the most uproar. Students and parents alike raise concern of becoming overworked and stressed under the new load. The proposal has received flack on the political front as well. Conservatives strongly oppose national education standards. Instead, they support allowing local school districts to outline their own requirements.

At first glance, a longer school year may look appalling.   But when America’s school year is compared to other countries’ the U.S falls short. According to the president’s Web site, 15 countries have longer school years, and seven of them have 200 days or more—including Scotland, Thailand, Israel, and South Korea—compared to the 180 required by the U.S.

Furthermore, according to a speech by Obama covering the topic, one-third of 13-and 14-year -olds cannot read at their appropriate age level, and the eighth-grade curriculum is two years behind top-performing countries. This is simply unacceptable.  U.S. school children continue to lag behind countries like Japan and South Korea in all areas of education.

While opponents argue that Obama wishes to destroy summer vacation altogether, this isn’t the case.  Obama does not plan on forcing kids to go to school for an extra 60 days (to match Japan’s 243 days). Rather, he is considering the addition of 20 required school days—to make a total of 200 required days.

Although I support the longer school year, I am opposed to the longer school day. According to The Washington Post, Obama plans to add 140 hours to the year.  Most students, especially those in high school, do far more than attend school every day.  Many play a sport, practice an instrument, or do some other extracurricular, making it hard to fit in the extra hours.

But a longer school year would allow teachers to teach material that would have had to be cut out due to time constraints and to work with students who are falling behind.  More time in the school year allows for further flexibility and opportunities for American students to lead the world academically. Furthermore, Obama’s plan to increase educational funding and, more importantly, reward good teachers (and lay off bad ones) is a good start to improving the U.S public school system, and therefore the students.