The Common Core could well be Obama's worst policy.

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76. Well, would you look at that...

You found a link that claims that our school year isn't based on an agrarian calendar.

Let's just pretend that it's impossible to find a site that disagrees with the assistant professors opinion (even though it's easy to find such sites). Among the reasons listed (in your link) are things such as no air conditioning (no longer applicable), and the fact that cities were teaching year round, but since a consistent school schedule was desirable - they compromised and adopted the agrarian/rural schedule (my paraphrase).

Even if I were to agree with your point (that it isn't based on an agrarian calendar) the FACT that it is still based on criteria that is no longer applicable is still an issue. The point here is that there is no justification for having an abbreviated school year and abbreviated school days except that it seemed like a good idea a hundred years ago.

As far as Finland - I read quite a bit of the article - it made this statement:

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers.

Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter.

Other places that I looked claimed that Finland has 195 days in their school year. Which is 3 weeks longer than our school year. The fact that the teachers spend less time teaching isn't the same as saying the students have a shorter school day. This actually reinforces my point - I believe the children should spend more time at school, that is not the same as saying they should spend more time in the classroom.

You make some good points, and if you think we should look at other places and mimic their system with the expectation that it will improve our system - then you and I are in complete agreement. The issue here is that educators are fighting change (any change)- and justify it by claiming that there is nothing wrong with our system.

There are problems with our system and if I recommend that we adopt components of Finland's system - educators will complain about that too. The children are performing better ON TESTS in Finland. The fact that they don't have 'high stakes tests' is not the same as saying they don't have tests.

I like the concept of a 'common core' and I don't know how else you verify that it is being 'learned' consistently without testing it consistently. Maybe you can educate me on that.

...and you can crank down the condescension just a tad. Just because I'm NOT opposed to common core doesn't make my opinions right wing talking points. I'm hardly a republican because I believe our education system should be updated.