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Should Teaching Your Child Involve Longer School Days?

Guest post by: Roy Derrick

Article Overview: There has been much debate recently as to whether schooldays should be longer. Many feel that school days should be between 9 am and 5pm but would this really be beneficial?

Should Teaching Your Child Involve Longer School Days?

There has been much debate recently as to whether schooldays should be longer. Many feel that school days should be between 9 am and 5pm but would this really be beneficial?

There would certainly be some advantages to lengthening the school day.

For example with there being more working moms now than previously, having children in school for longer hours would certainly help to create a better work life balance for those mums. No more expensive childcare and the peace of mind of knowing that your child is safe and not roaming the streets in gangs.

Many also argue that having longer school hours would help to prepare children for when they have to work long hours in their working career.

One example of a country that has longer school hours, often up to twelve hours a day, is China. They have a compulsory 9 year schooling during which most children often spend more hours at school than their parents do at work. Many would also argue that the strict emphasis that both parents and the government place on educating children in China is the reason that their economy is so strong.

Having longer school days could also provide more time to allocate to non academic activities such as school choirs, orchestras and sports teams. Indeed many school s who do actually offer after school education, often excel in these activities.

However whilst longer school days would certainly help working mums, is it really fair that children’s education should consists of having to stay in school for more hours?

Already most school offer extracurricular activities for after school including sports activities that can help working parents but would having after school education involving more educational activities for children offer any real benefits?

Would it really equip children better for the outside working world? Let’s be honest people have always managed to adapt to working life without any problems in the past.

Another downside of staying in school for a longer day is that when the children finally have time to play after finishing their homework, they will either be too tired to play or there will no one to play with as all the other children will still be completing their homework too. Therefore their social life could suffer which could also affect their social skills and confidence in the future.

Also teaching your children for longer hours could result in many children becoming tired, especially when they become hungry and therefore lacking concentration to take in further knowledge.

All in all, in my opinion it that it is far better to keep the school day to its current hours. As previously mentioned there are currently many extra curriculum activities offered by most schools which can be taken advantage of by working moms or dads.

Also with working from home now being so popular and with many employers also now offering working parents more flexible working hours, it is becoming easier than ever to work around your children’s school hours.

It would be therefore be much better to ensure that the education programs for children instead, concentrate on equipping children with the knowledge that they need to know after they leave school. This should include financial advice such as how to manage their money including advice on mortgages, loans and pensions and also how to start a business, for those future budding entrepreneurs. After all many leading entrepreneurs did not perform very well academically and would therefore would certainly not have benefitted from longer school days but have nevertheless gone on to become extremely successful within business.

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Article Tags: after school education, educating children, education programs for children, educational activities for children, flexible working hours, teaching your child, teaching your children, work life balance, work long hours, working from home, working moms, working mums



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