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.

Words of the Week

My football teams are hurting. When does college basketball season start? This week's quote comes from the Washington Post's story on the Redskins loss to the Lions.

"No question, yeah, we've got some problems. They [the coaches] do what they're supposed to do. They're putting us in position that you think would work on the field. They're putting us in position to execute. Even though to the public eye, the fans or the audience it looks like we ain't in the right position or we ain't making plays, they're calling the plays we think will work. But we've got to do something. We've got to get it worked out and come out and ball. And we got to hurry up and do it."

- Washington Redskins free safety LaRon Landry

Update: Soccer Two-Step

After Monday's post about the Soccer Two-Step, I found this entry from the Washington Post's On Parenting blog. The article cites a Purdue University study that found parents learn as much from youth sports as their children, from social interactions to balancing time.

Tightening the Belt

Everyone knows the economy is in bad shape, and almost everyone I know has had to make tough choices and changes to adjust to the times. Old Wahoo has struggled with this, though, and needs to re-examine the family budget, particularly discretionary spending.

Quite simply, I think I still spend too much money on needless things, from a cup of coffee or smoothie at Biggby's to the Netflix account. Something needs to change, and the Simple Dollar blog offers 100 ideas for a money-free weekend.

Here's an example:

32. Scan your old pictures. If you have a digital scanner laying around somewhere, bust it out and scan in the piles of old prints you have laying around. If you have a screensaver of pictures, scanning in old prints and adding them to the rotation will make your screensaver all the more amazing. Plus, it becomes easy to just attach them to emails and send them to friends and family.

Some are great ideas, some are simple and some I absolutely won't try. (I will never quilt. Sorry). But it's worth trying, I think, for two weekends a month. I'm curious how everyone else is finding creative ways to save. What are some things you do for a money-free and fun weekend?

Words of the Week

I think I need to pray a lot more.

"Ye fathers, provoke not our children to wrath."

- Ephesians 6:4

Soccer Two-Step

I have new-found respect for all soccer moms, hockey dads and baseball parents. I knew it was tough ferrying kids around to practice and shuttling back-and-forth between games, but this weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing those good times first hand.

It's a pain. Big-time, from putting uniforms on the kids to finding the right fields (which sounds simple, but I managed to screw that up once this weekend).

That said, I also know that we have it easy. We have just two kids playing right now. We are just doing recreational, house leagues - no travel teams. Practice time is minimal (which is easy for me to say, since I'm at work and Mrs. Wahoo has to handle all of that running around).

Plus, I think the weekend was worth it. Both boys had fun, which is the important part. And both boys had coaches who helped them learn and kept it fun, which is an even tougher balancing act (and coaching is an even bigger time issue and potential headache).

Another Father's Thoughts

John Richardson, an old apartment-mate of Old Wahoo's from the University of Virginia, offers his thoughts on fatherhood.

Age? 35

Number of children and their ages? 2 – 4 and 6

Occupation? Manager of Natural Gas for Dominion – Virginia Power

What is the best part about being a father? Seeing them everyday and knowing I had a part in their creation

What is the toughest challenge you face as a father? Discipline and understanding how they learn in order to help them

How do you balance career and family responsibilities? What kind of challenges does you career present? My job is generally flexible but sometimes I do miss out on events that occur during the day

How has fatherhood changed since you were a child? How are you a different father than your father? I think fathers are more involved in their kids daily life; I am not sure how I am different than my dad since I am sure I will change as a father as my kids get older; I can’t really compare apples to apples since I don’t remember what type of dad my father was when I was my kid’s ages.

What’s the best advice about fatherhood that you’ve received? No matter what, always let them know you love them….