School... A child's battle for life

School... A child's battle for life

Longer School Hours - Yay or Nay



I say both.


Yay because you get extra time to learn more stuff.
I remember when a period was about 45 minutes long and by the time the teacher got to finish explaining how something worked the bell rung and I’d think: 'there goes my questions.'

But now, the teacher has more time to explain how things work. I have more time to ask those important questions, and extra time to complete my work. The only problem is how slowly time goes by when you’re learning something that you do not find particularly interesting. It’s almost as if time stops and the only things that appear to be moving are the beads of sweat on my forehead, and the teacher’s mouth.

Longer school hours mean an hour for my favorite subjects. Religion, Reading, and Social Studies are my favorites. I can’t get enough of religion and so sixty minutes of learning, talking and thinking about Christ is absolutely awesome. An hour of social studies is FANTASTIC. Learning about the KKK and their hatred of minorities was horrific, yet fascinating. Am I glad I did not grow up in the Sixties, or in rural Georgia?

Longer school hours equal extra school work. How could I possibly agree? An extra fifteen minutes on the same subject when we could have moved on to another, more interesting one.
I DON’T THINK SO!


And now, my dear teacher has become my babysitter for an extra hour. I’m sure she just loves that. An extra hour with the children who make her talk and most probably make her a tiny bit crazy. Could someone please tell me whose bright idea this was? It sure was not mine. Maybe it was my mom’s idea or the idea of my classmate’s parents.

Did I mention that I get home an hour later which cuts into bonding time with my pet cat, Chloe. I used to be able to play with her for an hour before dinner time, but now I only see her on weekends. I get right into snack-time and dinner time and Chloe is feeling a bit neglected. I can tell from the way she ignores me when I get home.

I must say my grades have improved since these longer hours were introduced so I guess I am benefiting. Also, I don’t even realize that I’m in school longer, because my brain has adapted to the changes, so I guess longer school hours aren’t as bad as I thought they would be. I am slowly forgetting what it was like to hear the sound of the school bell at 3:00.