Why We Should Longer School Days Be Extended

At the moment, the school board is having a heated debate on quite the controversial question. “Should school days be extended?” Some vote in favor of it while others do not. Both sides shouting neck and neck at each other, neither coming to a decision any time soon. Given the fact that students already have extracurricular activities outside of school, stressful lives as it already is, and how much this will additionally cost, school days should not be extended. To begin with, students have other activities outside of schools such as musical lessons, sports, or even jobs they need to take part in. Extending school days would limit their time to so do, resulting in insufficient time to learn skills that can’t necessarily be obtained from school.

While it is true that longer school days allow teachers to truly get in-depth about a specific subject, the attention spans of teenagers won’t necessarily last that long. Think about it. If you were a student, you wouldn’t want to be stuck in chair, learning the same lesson for two hours. Having a time limit would be much more enjoyable and allow for students to truly focus their attention on the time provided for a subject. Moreover, while it may be true that more homework allows more practice, it also adds more stress on the students. Almost 40 percent of parents say their high-schooler is experiencing a lot of stress from school, according to a new NPR poll conducted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. In most cases, that stress is from academics, not social issues or bullying, the poll found (Neighmond). Extending school days would just burn students out, making this experience truly miserable. For instance, take the case of Orli Vogt-Vincent. She speaks for all the teenagers who state that they are exhausted from all the homework given, allowing no sleep possible. “It’s the outrageous workloads of teachers and staff shortages; it’s the lack of teaching and focus on paperwork; it’s the targets and assessments; the criteria and mark schemes that cause young people to feel under immense pressure.” Some teachers may state that students can complete the amounts of workloads given, but quite frankly, we can’t. Extending school days would not have a positive impact on students, nor their learning experience. It adds stress and pressure, which is can soon be unhealthy if