Our six hour school day drags on long enough already. We definitely don’t need to be extending the number of hours we spend here.

However, plenty of people would argue that high school students need more hours of school to benefit from more hours of learning.

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts has proposed a bill to expand the school day across America. “The 19th century school calendar of 180 days per year and 6.5 hours per day does not meet the educational demands of our 21st century economy,” Kennedy said.

True, Americans are not as proficient in such areas as math and science compared to other countries in recent studies. Some of these countries do have longer school days. It could be that they strongly benefit from longer school days.

Are American students apathetic about grades? Or, are other factors the cause?

Some of the countries scoring above the United States include Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands and Hungary.

I know plenty of people with failing grades that don’t work in class and don’t bother bringing up their failing grades. Would keeping them in school longer really make them try any harder or do they need something else to motivate them?

And what about the people who can and do get good grades? There is no point in keeping students in school longer for extra help if they don’t need it.

True, there are some people who are struggling in one or two classes, but our school has lunch intervention and the block schedule so those struggling students can get help.

“I think it would benefit me by providing a little extra time to be able to do homework in class. Also, in classes like math we could have a chance to do more and ask more questions,” sophomore Karissa Tatom said.

If Kennedy’s bill is passed, its intent is that students would get quality one-on-one tutoring. However, since not all students need this kind of learning experience, there should be options.

For example, some Boise schools on a six period schedule are offering both a zero hour and a seventh hour class for those students who are interested. This is one option that should be considered, seeing as how all students have the option of going or not. This would supplement programs like block schedule and lunch intervention.

Extended school days should not be forced upon us, with no considerable amount of thought about who does or does not need it.