In the UK, school hours should be much shorter and the school leaving age should be 12.
The 1819 Factory Act in the UK limited the working day for children in cotton mills.
What we need now is a Schools Act limiting the school day to three hours.
I would suggest that school hours could be 9 am to 12 noon.
Very few children can concentrate on school work for more than 3 hours per day.
When children are not at school they can enjoy being children. Interests will vary:
1. Children can work at home or in libraries on interesting homework projects. It would help if every child was given a computer.
2. They can join clubs involved in everything from sport to music to carpentry to journalism ....
3. They can become apprentices in safe and interesting occupations.
4. They can explore their world.
Mothers of younger children will be able to spend more time with their offspring.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1505796,00.html
'She's being a total Kelly' wrote Zoe Williams, in the 14 June 2005 Guardian.
UK Education Secretary Ruth Kelly wants children to be at school from 8am to 6pm.
An official at the Department for Education and Skills stated: "If we want parents to go out to work to support the family, the days of schools simply being open from 9am to 3pm are over."
Zoe Williams writes: "8 till 6 is a bloody long day."
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I have sent a half dozen street children to school at ages 10 - 12. I would not describe these children as more than normally intelligent but they generally performed as well as their peers within a few months. They usually completed the primary school curriculum (6 years) in two or three years. Most of these kids started in primary 3 at age ten/eleven and were promoted to primary 5 or 6 at the end of their first year.
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