“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick them-
selves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

~ Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

Here is the truth that we keep stumbling over: Unless we offer longer school days and school years to the students who have fallen significantly behind, we will never level the academic playing field. No magic exists to catch kids up in a standard school year, especially since the kids who have fallen behind tend to do less homework than their counterparts, rather than more. An equal school year tends to be unequal when that homework piece is thrown in — with the advantage going to the kids who were out front to start.

When we debate teaching techniques, disciplinary methods, and even extra tutoring, we are stumbling away from the truth. A few extra hours of tutoring per week may still leave students spending less time on academics than those more fortunate counterparts who attend more academically demanding schools. This fact tends to result in calls for raising the bar and increasing academic demands in our lower-performing schools. While upping our demands may prove useful sometimes, a child who enters school with only half the active vocabulary of another child will not catch up simply because the bar is raised. I can give all the rigorous homework I want. The number of papers turned in depends on how well my students can read and understand that homework. If the work’s too hard, the work won’t get done.

We can’t raise the bar to get out of this mess. We have to lengthen the school year.