# data[].attributes.body
About half (48%) of those who completed a survey from the NYU study, reported completing at least three hours of homework a night, and report that they are stressed, if we have more school hours that could also mean more homework which would lead to more stress. Lets be honest, many students are already stressed with only 5 days of school, if we have one more day of school and le rest and time t o do our weekend homework, it would add even more pressure to the students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over time selective high schools have oriented themselves to address a context of increasingly competitive college admissions

School work, college applications, extracurricular activities, and parental expectations all contribute to teenagers' stress

Youth, schools, and experts identified substance use as a common strategy for coping with stress

"School, homework, extracurricular activities, sleep, repeat-that's what it can be for some of these students," says Noelle Leonard, PhD, a senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN).

According to Leonard academic, athletic, social, and personal challenges have been regarded as domains of "good stress" for high school aged youth. However, there is growing awareness that many subgroups of youth experience high levels of chronic stress, to the extent that it impedes their abilities to succeed academically, compromises their mental health functioning, and fosters risk behavior. Furthermore, this chronic stress appears to persist into the college years, and Leonard warns it may contribute to academic disengagement and mental health problems among emerging adults.

"We are concerned that students in these selective, high pressure high schools can get burned out even before they reach college," noted Leonard. "The Charles Engelhard Foundation is interested in the issue of college engagement, and funded us to explore whether the roots of disengagement reach back as far as high school. We found that indeed they do."

In a four-phase quantitative and qualitative study published in Frontiers in Psychol ogy in July 2015, a team of NYUCN researchers led by Leonard assessed the coping skills, academic engagement, family involvement and expectations, mental health symptoms, and substance use among juniors enrolled in two highly selective private secondary schools in the Northeast: one an urban day school; the other a boarding school.

"While there is no doubt students in selective public high schools also experience high rates of chronic stress, we decided to study the private school setting, which has been under-studied compared to public institutions," said Marya Gwadz, PhD, the study's Principal Investigator.

Among the differences, families pay substantial tuition rates for a private education and most students are affluent, and "such factors result in a unique set of pressures, expectations, norms, and resources," noted Leonard. The study focuses on students in the eleventh grade. Chronic stress tends to be particularly high for this cohort, as it is generally the point at which students consolidate their portfolios in preparation for college applications.

"We sought to describe the experiences of the students, but also uncover the larger cultural and societal factors that drive the problem of chronic stress, since schools, families, and youth don't operate in a vacuum," said Amanda Ritchie, MAA, a study collaborator. "We know schools and families are embedded in society and are responding to its changing requirements and demands, with respect to the competitiveness of the college admissions process, the kinds of skills needed to succeed in the workforce, and even uncertainties in the global economy."

In the first phase of the study, researchers conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with nineteen private school teachers, counselors, and administrators to elicit their perspectives on student stress and coping. These responses were in turn used to inform the second phase of the study, a quantitative anonymous internet-based survey, administered to a total of 128 juniors between the two private schools.

About half (48%) of those surveyed reported completing at least three hours of homework a night, with girls 40 percent more likely to report three or more hours of homework a night than boys. Participants demonstrated a relatively strong academic performance, with girls reporting an average GPA of 3.57, higher than boys' average of 3.34. Students showed high levels of motivation for academic achievement, with an average valuation of 2.35 on a scale of 0 (least) to 3 (most). On average, girls were found to be more motivated in this regard than boys (2.48 vs. 2.22). Students reported high rates of feelings of "closeness" to their parents, with an average valuation of 3.15 on a 0-4 scale.

Nearly half (49%) of all students reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis and 31 percent reported feeling somewhat stressed. Females reported significantly higher levels of stress than males (60% vs. 41%). Grades, homework, and preparing for college were the greatest sources of stress for both genders. A substantial minority, 26 percent of participants, reported symptoms of depression at a clinically significant level.

In the third phase of the study, the NYUCN researchers conducted qualitative (semi-structured, open-ended) interviews with eighteen of the students surveyed to provide an interpretation of the results from the students' perspective.

For the fourth and final phase of the research, a panel of eight private school experts was convened- that included clinical social workers, psychologists, a private school guidance counselor, a teacher with both private and public school experience, a parent of two recent private school graduates, and a student who recently graduated from a private school. The Expert Panel members were presented with the results from the study's three previous phases in individual meetings and the responses from these interviews were used to further interpret and expand upon the data from prior phases.

"I think that parental pressure (on schools and students) is real," said a teacher with over twenty years of experience in the private school sector interviewed in the study's fourth stage. "Parents are coming in and thinking, I'm (spending a lot of money) and I need to get something, a very tangible something. A great education is not a tangible something; a diploma from Harvard, Princeton or Yale ...that's tangible."

Yet it has never been more difficult to enter one of these top-tier institutions, which may accept only 5 or 6 percent of their applicants, although in general a strong student will be able to gain access to any number of good colleges or universities. These highly selective schools and parents are responding to this competitive climate. Private schools have reacted by providing more difficult classes (which may require longer hours of challenging homework), college-level classes, and requiring extracurricular activities, as well as other opportunities for students to stand out, such as entrepreneurial or community service opportunities. Parents, in turn, may demand their children take Advanced Placement courses, even in cases where they are told their child is not a good fit for the course and may not be able to handle the work. Thus schools, parents, and students may feel caught in a cycle of escalating demands and expectations, largely out of their control and driven by greater societal factors.

Importantly, in a theme echoed by schools and experts, students noted that these demands did not always feel appropriate to their developmental levels. Instead, they felt they were asked to work as hard as adults, or even harder, with little time left for relaxation or creativity.

When exploring how students managed the various sources of stress described in the study, researchers found they used a variety of coping strategies ranging from healthy, problem-focused coping, to less adaptive, emotion focused, internal and external avoidance coping strategies. Active or problem-solving strategies for coping with stress included listening to or playing music, playing video/computer games, meditating, or getting away from school.

"Three main themes emerged as the most dominant adaptive coping strategies, notably, sports and exercise, preventive activities such as good planning skills, and maintaining a balanced perspective on school and grades," said Leonard.

"On the opposite end of the spectrum, our interviews yielded few descriptions of less adaptive strategies, in contrast to the many adaptive strategies articulated by students, with two exceptions, emotional exhaustion and substance use," said Michelle Grethel, Ph.D., an expert and independent consultant. Students described emotional exhaustion as a feeling of lethargy or immobilization in response to feeling overwhelmed and stressed. "I just don't do anything", "I won't do any of it" or " I lose the ability to function" were some of the ways students described this sense of paralysis. One student recounts: "You get tired. You don't really want to be around people. You just get in this kind of... funk where, like, you just kind of want to be alone in your room and just sleep. Or just like not dealing with anything..."

"Substance use for stress relief was a predominant theme in our interviews with students, over two-thirds of whom described substance use as both endemic to their social experience and as a method for managing stress," says Dr. Charles Cleland, a study investigator. Alcohol and marijuana were described as the primary substances students used for relaxation. As a male student noted: "most of the things that people do, here, when they're stressed is they go get drunk or they get high." However, for the most part students reported that substance use, while very common, did not usually rise to the level of problem or hazardous use.

Substance use for this purpose was not gender specific. One female student recounts, "Marijuana probably was a big anti-stress thing for me last year...just being relaxed for like an hour or two." In fact, the quantitative data indicates no gender differences for general substance use. Over the thirty-day period preceding the survey, 38 percent of students reported getting drunk and 34 percent of students reported getting high on an illegal substance, rates one to two times greater than reported in national normative samples.

"While students didn't discuss prescription drug use, members of the expert panel indicated its widespread use among students for whom it was prescribed as well as those for whom it was not prescribed," said Gwadz. One member of the panel, who counsels students noted "Using Ritalin (a stimulant commonly prescribed for ADHD) is seen only as a benefit and [the students are] incredulous that any faculty or counselor would challenge that taking Ritalin to get an edge in your academic performance, that there could be anything wrong with that ... that's what you have to do in this world."

Stress commonly leads to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Results of the study also indicated that parents, more so than their students, experienced a stigma associated with receiving mental health services. Members of the expert panel noted that parents will go to great lengths to avoid taking their children to an outside physician or counselor, as they believe their child will be labeled and such treatment will inhibit their child from getting into the college of their choice.

The researchers note that private schools take a multi-faceted approach to reducing the level of perceived stress and improving adaptive coping among students. High-performing schools mindful of the need to manage chronic stress among students have implemented strategies such as changing school schedules, staggering exams and assignments among different classes, and providing stress reduction opportunities such as yoga and meditation.

"Schools have an opportunity to engage and train families on ways to increase their capacities to serve as resources for their children; to educate families on the deleterious effects of chronic stress and the role of substances in coping with stress; and engage families and students in a dialogue about expectations for achievement and a wider definition of success, all of which may allow students to fully participate in the richness of the private school environment," said Leonard

Both Leonard and Gwadz note a number of promising avenues for future study. Given the exploratory nature of this study, they were unable to interview parents, who play a vital role in how students view and manage stress. While many students, teachers, and expert panel members in the current study discussed the role of parents in some detail, future research should explore parents' hopes and expectations for their children as well as how parents communicate these expectations. The researchers also hope to expand the study to include a more nationally representative sampling of private schools.

Researcher Affiliations: Noelle R. Leonard1, 2, Marya Viorst Gwadz1, Amanda Ritchie1, Jessica L. Linick1, 2, Charles M. Cleland1, Luther Elliott3, Michelle Grethel4.

1. Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), College of Nursing, New York University, New York, NY, USA

2. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

3. National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., New York, NY, USA

4. Independent Consultant, New York, NY, USA

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant from the Charles Engelhard Foundation and the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR; P30 DA011041). The study's authors wish to thank the participating schools, teachers, administrators, staff, students, and Experts.

About New York University College of Nursing

NYU College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science with major in Nursing, a Master of Science and Post-Master's Certificate Programs, a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development. For more information, visit https://nursing.nyu.edu/

The mission of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) is to end the HIV and HCV epidemics in drug using populations and their communities by conducting transdisciplinary research and disseminating its findings to inform programmatic, policy, and grass roots initiatives at the local, state, national and global levels. CDUHR is a Core Center of Excellence funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Grant #P30 DA011041). It is the first center for the socio-behavioral study of substance use and HIV in the United States and is located at the New York University College of Nursing. For more information, visit www.cduhr.org.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NYU Study Examines Top High School Students' Stress and Coping Mechanisms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The study shows that there is growing awareness many subgroups of youth experience high levels of chronic stress, to the extent it impedes their abilities to succeed academically, compromises their mental health functioning, and fosters risk behavior.

# data[].attributes.headline
Do we want students who are not concentrated

# data[].attributes.subject
Do we want students who are not concentrated

# data[].attributes.body
Students won't concentrate if they are in school for too long and they won't process the information quick enough.

# data[].attributes.headline
Do we really want quality over quantity?

# data[].attributes.subject
Do we really want quality over quantity?

# data[].attributes.body
We can still have good quality lessons over quantity, the teachers have less time to prepare.

# data[].attributes.body
Another side-effect to having six-day schooling is that the parents are also more stressed out for their childrens' studies. They have less rest, with less rest, they earn less for their children to go to school.

# data[].attributes.body
We will have less time spending with our family if we have six-day schooling.

# data[].attributes.headline
No time to recuperate from long school hours

# data[].attributes.subject
No time to recuperate from long school hours

# data[].attributes.body
After 6 long days of school, students would be tired and would only have one day to rest, plus, they would still have homework, they would have not enough time to rest then.

# data[].attributes.headline
You do not need six day schooling to do creative activities

# data[].attributes.subject
You do not need six day schooling to do creative activities

# data[].attributes.body
People say that six day schooling would provide students with more creative activities however, actually, they can do the same at home and be relaxed at the same time.

# data[].attributes.body
Japan and Finland. Japan previously with six day schooling. Finland with better quality education. They are both at pretty high education levels. We need not add an extra day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes.

The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful. "Six days of school" may make good headlines, but not much more.

Adding another day to classes is the least likely change to bring meaningful improvement to Japan's education system. This expansion of school hours is a surface change that might appear to strengthen education, but is actually more of a way for the ministry to avoid getting into messy details.

The effort to genuinely improve conditions for teachers and students can be better focused in other directions.

Primary and secondary teachers are already overworked. In addition to classes, most teachers perform administrative duties, supervise sports and circle activities, attend meetings, go to recertification sessions and work through the summer. What they really need is more time to prepare lessons, educate themselves in their content areas, and hone their pedagogical skills.

Adding Saturday classes means teachers have one less day to prepare, relax and get ready. For many teachers, that day is sometimes the only day to prepare.

Having more contact hours between teachers and students is helpful, but those hours should be more than just sitting in the same room. The time should be used constructively and meaningfully.

If the ministry is serious about improving education, it could start with the teacher-student ratio. Japan has the third-largest number of students in each class for primary education and the second highest for junior and senior high school education in the world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That means Japanese students have nearly the least amount of average interaction time with their teachers during class hours than any country except China and Korea.

Instead, the ministry should find ways to lower the number of students from an average of 30 to 35 to a more manageable, and efficient, 20 students per class. Since more new teachers must be hired to cover Saturday classes no matter what, lower student-teacher ratios would be a better expenditure than more class hours. The effectiveness of all classes will be improved by reducing the number of students in each class, not by lengthening total hours.

Big classes can achieve some goals, such as preparing for exams, but they do not foster a learning environment for the kinds of skills and knowledge students will really need for the future.

Especially for younger children, interactive exchanges with teachers are an essential part of their learning. Extending class hours with larger class sizes locks education into an information-oriented framework. That crowds out interactive contact time that develops language competence, critical thinking ability and cooperative skills.

Perhaps part of the push to add another day to the school week is to help cram for university entrance exams. Some universities have begun to change the types of entrance tests students can take, but for the most part, not enough has been done to overhaul the system. One wonders whether more Saturday classes would be focused on a broader range of skills, or whether Saturday classes would be aimed at preparation for multiple-choice tests. Sadly, the latter is more likely.

Part of the intention in freeing up Saturdays was that students would be given unstructured time to develop their own interests, spend time with friends and discover other ways of learning. The intention of yutori kyoiku was to develop more rounded human beings, rather than simply good test-takers.

Unfortunately, the open time on Saturdays has been given over to intensive sports practice, more cram school time or other structured, goal-directed pursuits. Adding class hours will not cancel those activities, but simply pile more onto students squeezed into less time than ever before.

The ministry is perhaps also seeking to bridge the gap between private and public schools, which is an admirable undertaking. Many private schools continue to hold Saturday classes at least twice a month.

It is important, though, that new changes in education do not confuse quality with quantity. Private schools tend to have lower teacher-student ratios and give more attention to individual students. They also generally have more highly qualified teachers who are better paid. The ministry should consider that.

A survey by the Tokyo Elementary School PTA Council found that 86 percent of parents and 38 percent of teachers were in favor of Saturday classes, while 7 percent and 52 percent, respectively, were opposed. Those opinions should be taken into account.

But to equate one more day of classes with an immediate improvement in education is far too simplistic. How class time is spent is the key point.

For some skills, more practice time leads to improvement, but for the more advanced skills, like higher order reasoning, ethical reasoning, and expressive skills in writing and speaking, the quality of practice is equally important.

A return to Saturday classes seems more like a nostalgic yearning for the past than a serious vision for the future. The ministry should work toward a better proposal for improving the quality of education.

LATEST EDITORIALS STORIES

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six days of school not the answer | The Japan Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes. The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful.

# data[].attributes.headline
Schools can only provide education that is teach at school , but student need more education at home.

# data[].attributes.subject
Schools can only provide education that is teach at school , but student need more education at home.

# data[].attributes.headline
There is more stress in six-day schooling

# data[].attributes.subject
There is more stress in six-day schooling

# data[].attributes.body
Some stress symptoms are muscle tension and pain, drug abuse and headaches.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How stress affects your body and behavior

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how stress symptoms can affect your health so that you can take action.

# data[].attributes.headline
Both teachers and students are already overwhelmed

# data[].attributes.subject
Both teachers and students are already overwhelmed

# data[].attributes.body
Having six-day schooling would make everyone in the school restless and tired. Students also have too much homework and will be overworked and teachers will have so much to mark and prepare they will also be overworked.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes.

The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful. "Six days of school" may make good headlines, but not much more.

Adding another day to classes is the least likely change to bring meaningful improvement to Japan's education system. This expansion of school hours is a surface change that might appear to strengthen education, but is actually more of a way for the ministry to avoid getting into messy details.

The effort to genuinely improve conditions for teachers and students can be better focused in other directions.

Primary and secondary teachers are already overworked. In addition to classes, most teachers perform administrative duties, supervise sports and circle activities, attend meetings, go to recertification sessions and work through the summer. What they really need is more time to prepare lessons, educate themselves in their content areas, and hone their pedagogical skills.

Adding Saturday classes means teachers have one less day to prepare, relax and get ready. For many teachers, that day is sometimes the only day to prepare.

Having more contact hours between teachers and students is helpful, but those hours should be more than just sitting in the same room. The time should be used constructively and meaningfully.

If the ministry is serious about improving education, it could start with the teacher-student ratio. Japan has the third-largest number of students in each class for primary education and the second highest for junior and senior high school education in the world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That means Japanese students have nearly the least amount of average interaction time with their teachers during class hours than any country except China and Korea.

Instead, the ministry should find ways to lower the number of students from an average of 30 to 35 to a more manageable, and efficient, 20 students per class. Since more new teachers must be hired to cover Saturday classes no matter what, lower student-teacher ratios would be a better expenditure than more class hours. The effectiveness of all classes will be improved by reducing the number of students in each class, not by lengthening total hours.

Big classes can achieve some goals, such as preparing for exams, but they do not foster a learning environment for the kinds of skills and knowledge students will really need for the future.

Especially for younger children, interactive exchanges with teachers are an essential part of their learning. Extending class hours with larger class sizes locks education into an information-oriented framework. That crowds out interactive contact time that develops language competence, critical thinking ability and cooperative skills.

Perhaps part of the push to add another day to the school week is to help cram for university entrance exams. Some universities have begun to change the types of entrance tests students can take, but for the most part, not enough has been done to overhaul the system. One wonders whether more Saturday classes would be focused on a broader range of skills, or whether Saturday classes would be aimed at preparation for multiple-choice tests. Sadly, the latter is more likely.

Part of the intention in freeing up Saturdays was that students would be given unstructured time to develop their own interests, spend time with friends and discover other ways of learning. The intention of yutori kyoiku was to develop more rounded human beings, rather than simply good test-takers.

Unfortunately, the open time on Saturdays has been given over to intensive sports practice, more cram school time or other structured, goal-directed pursuits. Adding class hours will not cancel those activities, but simply pile more onto students squeezed into less time than ever before.

The ministry is perhaps also seeking to bridge the gap between private and public schools, which is an admirable undertaking. Many private schools continue to hold Saturday classes at least twice a month.

It is important, though, that new changes in education do not confuse quality with quantity. Private schools tend to have lower teacher-student ratios and give more attention to individual students. They also generally have more highly qualified teachers who are better paid. The ministry should consider that.

A survey by the Tokyo Elementary School PTA Council found that 86 percent of parents and 38 percent of teachers were in favor of Saturday classes, while 7 percent and 52 percent, respectively, were opposed. Those opinions should be taken into account.

But to equate one more day of classes with an immediate improvement in education is far too simplistic. How class time is spent is the key point.

For some skills, more practice time leads to improvement, but for the more advanced skills, like higher order reasoning, ethical reasoning, and expressive skills in writing and speaking, the quality of practice is equally important.

A return to Saturday classes seems more like a nostalgic yearning for the past than a serious vision for the future. The ministry should work toward a better proposal for improving the quality of education.

LATEST EDITORIALS STORIES

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Six days of school not the answer | The Japan Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes. The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful.

# data[].attributes.body
With more days of school, students will not be able to rest properly and have enough sleep. This cause many consequences such as panda eyes, not being able to do work properly and cause their own grades to drop.

# data[].attributes.headline
Adults say yes. But student's voices are more powerful!

# data[].attributes.subject
Adults say yes. But student's voices are more powerful!

# data[].attributes.body
A survey by the Tokyo Elementary School PTA Council found that 86 percent of parents and 38 percent of teachers were in favor of Saturday classes, while 7 percent and 52 percent, respectively, were opposed. Those opinions should be taken into account, too. But they are not the ones going to school. They are not the ones going to school against their will!

# data[].attributes.body
We will have more homework if we have six-day schooling.

# data[].attributes.body
Having more school days causes students to have stress and depression. There is not need for more pressure on students by adding more days to school time. Students will not be learning anything if they are feeling stressed and worn out. There would be no benefits just by having another school day!

# data[].attributes.headline
Some students don't want to be in school

# data[].attributes.subject
Some students don't want to be in school

# data[].attributes.body
Some students are bullied all the time. Six- day schooling will not benefit them as they would be bullied even more.

# data[].attributes.body
Many students spend almost one day of the weekend catching up on projects and doing homework, as such. They already have very little time to do what they want, their hobbies. And instead of learning school stuff, they need time to learn extra-curricular stuff

# data[].attributes.headline
Students who already don't like 5 days of school will hate it even more when there are 6 days and will get restless.

# data[].attributes.subject
Students who already don't like 5 days of school will hate it even more when there are 6 days and will get restless.

# data[].attributes.body
Students already spend 5 out of 7 days in a week to go to school! An average school day is about 7 hours, which adds up to spending 35 hours a day to spend in school! Researches have shown that in Chicago, adding an extra school day would cost 84 million US dollars in all schools! This excludes maintenance, water, and other utilities issues.

# data[].attributes.body
Some schools, such as many in Finland, give the kids who are falling behind special help. If we can do that too, students need not have an extra day of schooling. In Finland, 30% of students require such tutoring. In Hong Kong, we don’t have such tutoring. Perhaps instead of extending a day, we can just have this tutoring for the students who are falling behind, instead of forcing students to go to school against their will

# data[].attributes.headline
Some student don't like to go to school.

# data[].attributes.subject
Some student don't like to go to school.

# data[].attributes.body
Some of the student even don't like go to school. Six-day schooling will cause them to hate learning new things in school.

# data[].attributes.headline
Teachers have less time to prepare for the next week of school

# data[].attributes.subject
Teachers have less time to prepare for the next week of school

# data[].attributes.body
Some symptoms of stress are headaches, sleep problems and muscle pain/tension. The behavior will also change in overeating or undereating, drug abusity and angry outbursts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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Include a valid email address

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How stress affects your body and behavior

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how stress symptoms can affect your health so that you can take action.

# data[].attributes.body
Students will be really tired out from the 6 days of schooling

# data[].attributes.headline
If you want to revise, do it yourself at home

# data[].attributes.subject
If you want to revise, do it yourself at home

# data[].attributes.body
You can always revise yourself, if you want to cram your head full of information. Or you could rest. It is your own choice, what you want to do on weekends. But not if it is for school.

# data[].attributes.body
We can have more free time to do things that we like and we want to do

# data[].attributes.body
With more school students will get more stressed as they do not have sufficient rest time.

# data[].attributes.body
Going to school before the age of 7 is not compulsory in Finland.

# data[].attributes.headline
Both teachers and Children have less time for themselves .

# data[].attributes.subject
Both teachers and Children have less time for themselves .

# data[].attributes.body
If there is only one day for teacher. After prepare next week classes they don't have themselves time, as well as children, after finish homework, they don't have time, too.

# data[].attributes.body
No time to spend with parents

# data[].attributes.body
A survey conducted in students: only 18% want six-day schooling, while 82% say no to six-day schooling, on debate.org, many more users support no six-day schooling

# data[].attributes.body
Six day schooling will deprive students of relaxing and bonding time with their parents and relatives. These acts would lead to having less strong relationships with their parents and generate less trust between children and parent. Also, homework already takes up 2 hours and 20 minutes of their time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes.

The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful. "Six days of school" may make good headlines, but not much more.

Adding another day to classes is the least likely change to bring meaningful improvement to Japan's education system. This expansion of school hours is a surface change that might appear to strengthen education, but is actually more of a way for the ministry to avoid getting into messy details.

The effort to genuinely improve conditions for teachers and students can be better focused in other directions.

Primary and secondary teachers are already overworked. In addition to classes, most teachers perform administrative duties, supervise sports and circle activities, attend meetings, go to recertification sessions and work through the summer. What they really need is more time to prepare lessons, educate themselves in their content areas, and hone their pedagogical skills.

Adding Saturday classes means teachers have one less day to prepare, relax and get ready. For many teachers, that day is sometimes the only day to prepare.

Having more contact hours between teachers and students is helpful, but those hours should be more than just sitting in the same room. The time should be used constructively and meaningfully.

If the ministry is serious about improving education, it could start with the teacher-student ratio. Japan has the third-largest number of students in each class for primary education and the second highest for junior and senior high school education in the world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That means Japanese students have nearly the least amount of average interaction time with their teachers during class hours than any country except China and Korea.

Instead, the ministry should find ways to lower the number of students from an average of 30 to 35 to a more manageable, and efficient, 20 students per class. Since more new teachers must be hired to cover Saturday classes no matter what, lower student-teacher ratios would be a better expenditure than more class hours. The effectiveness of all classes will be improved by reducing the number of students in each class, not by lengthening total hours.

Big classes can achieve some goals, such as preparing for exams, but they do not foster a learning environment for the kinds of skills and knowledge students will really need for the future.

Especially for younger children, interactive exchanges with teachers are an essential part of their learning. Extending class hours with larger class sizes locks education into an information-oriented framework. That crowds out interactive contact time that develops language competence, critical thinking ability and cooperative skills.

Perhaps part of the push to add another day to the school week is to help cram for university entrance exams. Some universities have begun to change the types of entrance tests students can take, but for the most part, not enough has been done to overhaul the system. One wonders whether more Saturday classes would be focused on a broader range of skills, or whether Saturday classes would be aimed at preparation for multiple-choice tests. Sadly, the latter is more likely.

Part of the intention in freeing up Saturdays was that students would be given unstructured time to develop their own interests, spend time with friends and discover other ways of learning. The intention of yutori kyoiku was to develop more rounded human beings, rather than simply good test-takers.

Unfortunately, the open time on Saturdays has been given over to intensive sports practice, more cram school time or other structured, goal-directed pursuits. Adding class hours will not cancel those activities, but simply pile more onto students squeezed into less time than ever before.

The ministry is perhaps also seeking to bridge the gap between private and public schools, which is an admirable undertaking. Many private schools continue to hold Saturday classes at least twice a month.

It is important, though, that new changes in education do not confuse quality with quantity. Private schools tend to have lower teacher-student ratios and give more attention to individual students. They also generally have more highly qualified teachers who are better paid. The ministry should consider that.

A survey by the Tokyo Elementary School PTA Council found that 86 percent of parents and 38 percent of teachers were in favor of Saturday classes, while 7 percent and 52 percent, respectively, were opposed. Those opinions should be taken into account.

But to equate one more day of classes with an immediate improvement in education is far too simplistic. How class time is spent is the key point.

For some skills, more practice time leads to improvement, but for the more advanced skills, like higher order reasoning, ethical reasoning, and expressive skills in writing and speaking, the quality of practice is equally important.

A return to Saturday classes seems more like a nostalgic yearning for the past than a serious vision for the future. The ministry should work toward a better proposal for improving the quality of education.

LATEST EDITORIALS STORIES

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Six days of school not the answer | The Japan Times

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After reviewing the current five-day school week in public schools, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology says it is again considering holding Saturday classes. The reduction of the school week to five days was fully implemented nationwide from 2003 as part of the ministry's " yutori kyoiku " (pressure-free education) policy, which, most would agree, has been less than successful.

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There will be too much stress for students.

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There will be too much stress for students.

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In China, schools starts at 7 am and ends at 5 pm. If there is added one more day, they won't have enough time to rest.

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students will see their parents less in one week

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students will see their parents less in one week

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Students only have one day (Sunday) to spend time with their parents

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While US has 1149 hours of schooling, and Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore only had 1,050, 1,013, 1,005 and 903 hours respectively, the Asian countries still outshine the US

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Increasing the length of the school day for children and teenagers in grades K-12 has been proposed by government agencies and private educators alike. Even though additional classroom time means ...

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Students already have so much stress. We already spend 5 days a week in school, spending 7 hours a day. That's 35 hours a week! A research has shown that

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Homework will stress them out even more

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Weekends are supposed to be relaxing after you have done one week of learning, why spend even more time on education when you can sleep late, wake up late and do whatever you want at home?

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We need to pay more money for six-day schooling.

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We need to pay more money for six-day schooling.

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Some of the families may not afford the payment of six-day schooling because it might be more expensive than five-day schooling

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The number of time spent doesn't matter, it's how it's spent.

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The number of time spent doesn't matter, it's how it's spent.

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It's not the amount of time that you spend in school, its how you handle that time. If you work hard you can get what would have been a week's worth of work.

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In the past decade or more, the national debate about effective learning has centered on teacher quality. Now the discussion is turning to a second major resource in education: Time.

A new joint report from the National Center on Time & Learning and Neag's Center for Education Policy Analysis sets the baseline profile for the amount of time in the school day and school year in schools across the nation.

"What this report does is establish a national profile for how time is spent in schools," says co-author Tammy Kolbe, an assistant research professor who came to the Neag School of Education last fall from Florida State University. Kolbe's policy interest focuses on the cost-effectiveness of extending time in the school day and year.

Content in the report, " Time and Learning in Schools: A National Profile ," is based largely on 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data, the only nationally representative source for identifying variations in the amount of time students spend in public, private, and charter schools. Even so, researchers say, its information is limited in describing how time in school is spent.

The joint report, written by Kolbe; Mark Partridge, a graduate student she worked with at Florida State University; and Fran O'Reilly, vice president of research at the National Center on Time & Learning, makes a strong call for much tighter federal data on how the time students spend in school is used.

"We're not advocates for more use of time, alone," O'Reilly says. "We realize there are other things - targeted instruction and leadership, instructional quality, teacher collaboration. All of those things need time."

Kolbe says the report's conclusion, in part, "was to give the feds a nudge, to say, 'Look, guys, you need better data.'"

Rethinking the school calendar

The average school day is 6.75 to 7 hours and the average school year rests right at 180 days, the report says. But the quantity of time cannot be translated into the quality of learning.

"It's what we do with those school days that is at the heart of the issue," says Casey Cobb, head of the Neag Center for Education Policy Analysis. "There's no sense doubling up the time if it's not working for kids."

Kolbe says the federal data available cannot show a causal link between time in school and student performance. "Increasing the time or extending the year, is that a strategy to boost student achievement? Right now we can't link time to student achievement on a national level."

Some key findings in the time and learning report, which studied schools with third and eighth grades, are:

Despite national interest, the goal of increasing in-school time for most students is a long way off.

In the past 10 years, the net gain in average length of school day was only about 4 minutes.

The public school day still falls short of the typical private and charter school day.

The 180-day school year remains the norm for public schools, with only 17 percent of them adding three to six more days a year. By contrast, nearly 10 percent of charter schools have gone to more than 187 days.

Evidence suggests that adding time to the school year is a strategy used to serve schools with more at-risk students, predominantly in urban areas.

Public schools without a teachers' union are more likely to adopt an extended year or longer day than their unionized counterparts.

Elementary students in schools with longer-than-average days not only get more instruction in core subjects, especially math, science, and social studies, but also non-core subjects such as physical education and music.

"The NCTL and Neag report is an important first step to translate the quantitative data of time in school into something that will inform analysts and policy makers' recommendations about how to best use time," says Cynthia G. Brown, vice president for education policy at the Center for American Progress.

Educators and policymakers took notice of the time issue when two key reports, "A Nation at Risk" (1983) and "Prisoners of Time" (1994), recommended that American students spend more time in school.

In 2009, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan leveraged the debate when they challenged states to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to kick start school reform, including rethinking the traditional school calendar.

"We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of the day. The calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage," Obama said.

Policymakers soon started making comparisons between U.S. schools and those in developed nations abroad. The new time and learning report does not address such comparisons.

Co-author O'Reilly cautions, "People are batting around all these comparisons about how much time students in other countries, especially high-performingcountries, spend compared to the U.S. We need to have good numbers on that," she says, adding that a lot has happened in federal education policy since the last time-in-school data was collected in 2007-08.

Information gaps

Kolbe says the key to thinking about more time in school is considering a redesign of the school day, with more emphasis, for example, on academic and enrichment activities along with more professional collaboration among teachers.

"A national policy of going to 10-hour days may not make sense," she says. "We need more research to see under what conditions it's a promising practice, and is it cost-effective relative to other reform models."

The TIME Act, or Time for Innovation Matters in Education Act, was introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2009 and in mid-April 2011 in the U.S. House. The bill calls for expanded learning time initiatives.

The Time and Learning report points out several gaps in the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey data - for instance, that while the database identifies schools with longer than average school days or school years, it does not reveal how many days are in the school week. "Without this piece of information we cannot assess the extent to which schools make trade-offs between longer school days and shorter school weeks - a practice that has gained attention as schools struggle to operate within increasingly difficult fiscal conditions," the report says.

"There is an urgent need to respond to these information gaps," the report concludes, saying the lack of information stymies intelligent policy on adding time in schools, something encouraged by federal grant initiatives.

"With hundreds of public schools poised to increase learning time through federal funding, understanding the landscape and identifying opportunities for further research and evaluation is imperative," the report states.

Kolbe, who studies how resources and policy intersect, says, "We need to keep in mind that we haven't moved very far away from the same model for time allocation in school than what we had in 1900. It hasn't really changed.

"Now we've moved down the field quite a bit about teachers as resources, but we need to start that conversation with time."

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It's Not the Time Spent in School, It's How It's Used - UConn Today

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In the past decade or more, the national debate about effective learning has centered on teacher quality. Now the discussion is turning to a second major resource in education: Time. A new joint report from the National Center on Time & Learning and Neag's Center for Education Policy Analysis sets the baseline profile for the amount of time in the school day and school year in schools across the nation.

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Teachers have less time to prepare fully.

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Teachers have less time to prepare fully.

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When the teachers have less time to prepare, the students will learn a lot more slowly

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Students will have less time for outdoor activities like sports

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Students will have less time for outdoor activities like sports

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Students will spend more time on education when they should also do more sports and keep themselves healthy!

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Six day schooling means long hours and this also means that the kid would start to hate school and the motivation to study and learn would start to cease as well