Would You Trade a Longer School Day for No Homework? [POLL]

Governor Christie has been touting the benefit of a longer school day and year. He first brought it up at his state of the state address and may talk more about tomorrow night on “Ask The Governor.”

Speaking of asking,  NJ Legislator, Shirley Turner re-introduced a measure that would create a commission to look at the effects of a longer school day and year.

If you really break it down, how much longer can a school day be? I would figure no more than 8 hours. My 7-year-old boys are going for 6 and a half hours now from 8:30 until 2:55. What if there were a compromise? Let’s say we extend the day by one hour but as the trade off, we would take away homework.

When you figure out the amount of time a student spends on homework each night, in many cases it comes out to more than an hour. If the student were able to spend that time in the presence of the teacher who could give them the help they were trained to do instead of the parent who may not be as up to speed on the lesson, the child would benefit much more. The teacher could give a more complete lesson instead of sending part of it home. Now when the bell rings an hour later, the student is completely done for the day and can focus on extra curricular activities, like being a kid.

Being the father of 7-year-old twins I know how short the attention span of a child is. You may want to add a period called “homework,” where the child could ask a teacher for the help they need.

As for the longer school year, perhaps if this worked you may not need one. It isn’t like we really need one now. Thoughts?  Would you buy into the longer school day if it came with no homework? Take the poll below.