Obama's fatherhood initiative

Here's something more dads can get behind: President Obama extended his observance of Father's Day to Monday.
While Obama has a serious, noble mission in mind - getting more dads to step up and be involved in their children's lives (something that seems like a no-brainer but something he will get hammered for because he mentioned "two fathers" in raising a child) - there are tons of benefits to this plan. More barbecue, baseball and beer. If that's all we get with an extra day of Father's Day, then I'm all for it.

Colbert's Word on Education

Stephen Colbert and a fifth-grader give their take on Obama's education reforms. It's pretty hilarious.

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More Education

Michael Smerconish wrote an interesting piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer about President Obama's desire for longer school days and years. Other than the image of the Rev. Al Sharpton and Newt Gingrich working together - following those two guys would make for the ultimate reality show - Smerconish echoed the thoughts of many of you to Old Wahoo's earlier post on the possibility of a longer school year.

Though he sees merit in some of the idea behind a longer school day, Smerconish points out that his 13-year-old son already has plenty on his plate at school - on the bus by 7, beginning school at 8, cross-country meet in the afternoon and home at 4:45 p.m. That's almost a 10-hour day.

While Smerconish admits that not all children in America are afforded the same opportunities as his son, he suggests that there are different problems that face American education - ones that won't be solved merely by lengthening the school day and year. Efficiency and after-school pursuits (i.e. too much TV and video games) are bigger issues.

"We probably don't use our time in school as efficiently as some countries, so we're not as focused strictly on academic matters. We do a lot of other things in schools that other countries don't do," (the Brooking Institute's Tom) Loveless told me. Foreign overachievers, meanwhile, also dedicate more time outside the classroom to what Loveless called "academic pursuits."

Do We Need a Longer School Year?

Apparently, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan think so. Obama and Duncan believe a longer school year as well as a longer school day would benefit children in the United States and make the education system more competitive with other countries.

"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."

My first reaction was to dismiss this out of hand. I don't want to curtail my kids' summer vacation, and I have a feeling this is going to be the overwhelming view.

That said, there are some intriguing aspects of the program, and the benefits to less advantaged children would be significant. In addition, experts believe even a 10-minute per day increase in math class would provide big gains.

Still, the costs would be huge, and with the ongoing health-care debate, I can only imagine the education debate would also prove heated with more emotion-based arguments (such as my initial reaction) than actual reflection and thought.

What do you think? Can a longer school year and day help? What will be the effects for families, from the low-income to the well-to-do?

I'm interested to know what you think.

On Fatherhood

President Obama delivered a speech Friday on fatherhood, stressing the importance of dads in their children's lives. For the president, the address had a personal touch, according to The New York Times.

“I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my life,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s something that leaves a hole in a child’s heart that governments can’t fill.”

At npr.org, Peter Breslow has an hilarious commentary on telling his daughters stories of his dog Ralph. Old Wahoo really appreciated this essay because I can relate to Peter having to tell how Ralph climbed Mount Everest, and how the stories became more and more fantastic, because Alex wants - no, demands - stories such as this. Though he usually wants putt-putt stories involving Jabba the Hutt and the Sarlaac pit.

Also, check out Kara Swanson's post about her dad. It's a great read for Father's Day.

Words for the Week

Here's something to ponder from the 44th President of the United States:

"I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven't yet achieved enough in my life. I come to embrace it, to heartily concur, to affirm that one's title, even a title like president, says very little about how well one's life has been led - and that no matter how much you've done, or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve." - Barack Obama, speaking at commencement ceremonies at Arizona State University

Back on Terra Firma

Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission and landed on Saturday. The mission helped power up the space station by delivering an array of solar panels, and they also performed a fairly gross experiment, in which they tried to recycle urine into water. I think the boys were most impressed by President Obama's call to the astronauts.