There has been a lot of press about education recently, in part due to the resignation of D.C. Chancellor of Education Michelle Rhee and the release of the powerful documentary Waiting for Superman, a film that exposes the dire urgency for education reform in the United States.

Obama believes that a longer school year would be beneficial due to the success of other countries whose school years are longer than those in the U.S. He says that students are losing valuable time and knowledge during that time spent away from school.

“The idea of a longer school year I think makes sense. Now, that’s going to cost some money and I think that would be money well spent,” said Obama.

Despite the No Child Left Behind Act, education in our nation remains a broken system full of inequity and poor management. But the solutions being offered would only benefit inner city areas with at-risk students, and they would be impractical in a suburban environment like WJ. Obama wants to extend the school year well into the summer to increase our global standing in education. This idea stems from countries like South Korea and Switzerland, where the school year is longer than Montgomery County’s nine-month, 180 mandated days of school.

The fallacy of this proposal is that the nation must attempt to fix the situation in the present and the poor distribution of funding before attempting to compete with other global superpowers. Extending school into the summer might not improve test scores, but it would cost much more money to pay teachers. On the contrary, it would stunt our motivation to learn. Without a full summer, students would become drones, going from class to class with no real, intrinsic enthusiasm about the subjects they sit through.

Although school during the summer may be acceptable in the cultures of other countries, summer here is a time when students explore the world outside the hallways of school. During the summer, students have summer jobs, get internships in future job fields, take trips to other countries, and immerse themselves in the world as young adults. Taking that enriching time away would be detrimental to our development as teenagers.

In most high schools, the top-tier students who take real interest in learning are involved in extracurricular activities. This is the key to a student’s success; whether it is drama, debate, sports or mathletes, these activities create structure in a student’s life, a life that could easily be spent mindlessly surfing the internet. Beyond this, activities teach students important life skills like teamwork, diligence and communication. The Obama administration and educators everywhere should stop concentrating on the hours and days spent in school, but on the hours spent outside of school by strengthening and prioritizing the importance of extracurricular activities. A mandate that children participate in at least one activity that meets twice a week for an hour would be an effective way to expand knowledge and interest in different fields of work.