Should School Days Be Shorter?

TEXT A — A Parent's View

We are asking too much of our children. A school day that begins at half past eight and ends at half past three already takes seven solid hours of concentration; by the time homework is done, most ten year olds have worked a longer day than many adults. Sleep researchers tell us that primary-aged children need ten hours of sleep a night, and that the early afternoon is precisely when their attention dips most steeply. Schools could end the day at two, give back two valuable hours of family and play time, and almost certainly see no drop in attainment. The evidence from countries that already do this — Finland, for instance — is encouraging. A shorter day is not a softer day. It is a smarter one.

TEXT B — A Teacher's View

Every September I hear the same suggestion, and every September I disagree. School is not only lessons. The two hours that some parents wish to remove from the day include lunchtime, P.E., music, library and conversation — the parts of school that a child often remembers thirty years later. Reduce the day and you reduce the most human parts of it first, because they are easiest to cut. And for the many children who do not have a quiet kitchen table to come home to, school is the only steady, well-fed, well-staffed place in their week. Before we shorten the school day, we should ask: who benefits, and who quietly loses?