Suzanne Bremer for Somerville

A Response to the Recent Discussion on Extending the Day in Our Public Schools

Since our son, a second grader, been enrolled in the after school program at his elementary school, he has had what amounts to an extended school day for the last year & a half. As a family where both parents work, we needed a place from him to be after 2:30. In addition to being safe & well cared for, he has reaped the following benefits -

Social outlet - He gets to hang out & play with kids from other classrooms & other grades. How cool is that? From what we've seen at pick-up, the kids watch out for & seem genuinely supportive of each other.
Enrichment - swimming, field trips, art projects, computer lab, making potato chips, playing board games (he's learned to play chess at after school), being with adults who are neither his parents or classroom teachers.
Assistance with homework - Most of the time, our son completes most of his homework during the after school program. (We still get hammered by the special monthly projects; much of this past weekend, for example, was devoted to the life & times of Neil Armstrong.)

There are two things that I want my kids to get out of school. First, I want them to learn the fundamentals - reading, writing, math, the basics of the physical & social sciences, the ability to organize their time, think critically, and begin to form a frame work for understanding the world around them. And I want my kids to be inspired. As great & important as classrooms are, learning only happen in one place & that's between a kid's ears. Reading under the blanket by flashlight, burning a hole in the rug with the chemistry set, putting on a play in the backyard, setting the alarm clock so as not to miss a lunar eclipse, taking books out of the library about whales because he's interested - more than any test score or grade, these are signs that the kid is not only learning, but will continue to learn after the diploma & the hand shake. That's what I want for my kids. That what I want for all our kids.

Suzanne
March 11, 2008