Lengthening Class Time

Adrienne Mack wrote an essay about 55 minutes being too restrictive for learning (Commentary, July 23). She is right.

However, she has missed an opportunity that cannot be overlooked. Learning over longer periods cannot be limited to language arts. We must look deeper into the real workings of our schools and make radical changes so test scores will go up dramatically. The start and finish times for our schools are based on the agrarian economy of our past. Those times required children to work in the early morning and late afternoon to help slop the pigs, harvest eggs and milk the cows. They were needed to clean barns and help cook.

In today’s world those needs are no longer in demand. Thus our children are available to go to school from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. just as they might do when they go into the workplace.

The resultant benefits are huge. We could change the length of classes based on the intricacies of the course material. Math should be taught for two hours while teaching penmanship for half an hour is sufficient. History for one hour and science for 1 1/2. These are arbitrary times but the idea is should be clear.

Along with additional hours of instruction, we need to measure teachers for qualification and pay, based on student test results, not on tenure, how many papers they write or how many extra courses they take.

JUDD WENNER

Los Angeles