by Lisa Barry

Created on: May 19, 2008

The school year should NOT be lengthened. Despite the fact that the United States is lagging behind other developed countries in most academic areas, the reason is not because we offer our children a long summer break or a winter break or a spring break. The reason is because the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has devalued the American education system and has eliminated the opportunity for teachers to encourage and foster independent critical thinking, has eliminated a focus on the basics, and has forced the education system to emphasize standardized tests, which cannot effectively assess the mastery of the most important skills needed for success in the world. Lengthening the school year would serve only to undermine what limited potential the American education system still possesses.

In an effort to boost aptitude in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the sciences, President Bush enacted the NCLB Act and forced school systems across the country to institute prescribed curricula that will enable students to pass a standardized test with a pre-determined set of criteria. This, in turn, devalued the American education system because teachers can no longer focus on individual skills, creativity, and independent thinking and learning, because they are forced to teach to the test. The tests to not measure actual skills; rather, they assess how successfully students test. Those students who may suffer from learning disabilities or who have test anxiety do not perform well on these tests. Moreover, the very school districts that lack resources often do not meet Annual Yearly Progress and are sanctioned (often losing what little federal funding they may have), which results in less resources.

Lengthening the school year would create an even bigger chasm between the "haves" and "have nots" with regard to funding, resources, and success.

Americans were once considered the best and the brightest in the world, which largely fueled the rivalry between the United States and the Soviets during the Cold War. Some of the greatest thinkers of our time came out of the American Education system, one that offered even longer summer and winter breaks than we now have. Bill Gates, Henry Gates, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs . . . these and others rose to prominence by learning the basics, receiving individualized attention from teachers, and having the free time to explore the world and develop the ability to think independently and critically

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