Children, today spend a lot of time in school. Besides the normal hours in class, there are also extra-mural activities, games, and sports. Sometimes we spend the whole day in school. I would say that the school hours should not be made longer. If possible I would rather we have shorter school hours.
School children have to sit in class every day for about six hours. This happens five days a week, except for holidays. Thus it is quite a strain to spend so much time trying to learn the things that are put onto us. We have to learn mathematics, geography, history, science, art, and other subjects, one after another with hardly a break. it is not easy to switch from one subject to another every time the bell rings, but we do try. It is especially difficult after a grueling session in trigonometry to switch to the population of North American cities. There are so many things to remember. We, as humans, sometimes do forget.
The daily break of 20 minutes is a much welcome thing. It enables us to recover a bit from the constant onslaught of information in class. But then it is back to the grind until school is over.
After a hard day at school, we cannot look forward to any rest. There are tons of homework to do every day. The teachers seem to think that we are only learning the subjects they teach. So they load ‘us with homework, not realizing that other teachers have loaded us with their homework as well. Rarely we get an understanding teacher who gives us a minimum amount of homework. Usually, we have to spend the rest of the day at home doing our homework. Otherwise, we will have to answer to the teachers for failing to finish the homework on time.
Some days we have to return to school after normal school hours to participate in sports, games and other activities. These are compulsory and so we spend more time in school. These activities are interesting sometimes. Often they are not.
In short, it is evident we school children do not have much time to spend on our own. The school takes much of our time. Homework takes a huge part of the rest. if we do not have such long school hours then we will have more time for ourselves to relax and do the things we want. Also, shorter school hours mean that we do not have to absorb so much information. This is definitely less strain on our young minds. Furthermore, we will have fewer teachers giving us homework. So we have less homework to do.
Some adults say that children have too much free time. They have come to this conclusion because they see some kids loitering in shopping complexes and public areas. What they see is only a handful of kids. The majority of us have to slog in school or spend time finishing our homework. Anyway, these loiterers are the ones who just cannot cope with the pressure in school. So they simply give up and loaf around. cannot really blame them for school is indeed tough. The weaker of us cannot take it. Long hours in school cooped up in a classroom do nothing to hem the situation.
It would not be correct to say that shorter hours will make the school more pleasant. I would say that longer hours will make the situation worse. We need free time for ourselves. We need to do the things we want. Sometimes we need to do nothing in particular. We have to relax and take things easy. Otherwise, we are likely to go mad or join the loiterers in the shopping complexes. So I have to say to those in power: please don’t make school hours any longer The hours are already too long.