早起的鳥兒吃得好？

By Charles Lane

在中國，社會、學(xué)校、家長一直在呼吁給學(xué)生減負(fù)，而減負(fù)的措施之一就是減少每天的上課時間。而大洋彼岸的美國，居然有人想要延長學(xué)生每天的上學(xué)時間。這又是怎么回事呢？

Host： Longer school days—your kids may not like them， but more and more policymakers do. From New York and Arizona， theres a push to lengthen the public school day， but the costs can be prohibitively expensive. One school in Connecticut is experimenting with ways to make a longer school day interesting and affordable.

Reporter： Its early， 7：30 in the morning， the sun is still rising. And already， the kids here at Pulaski Elementary School in Meriden， Connecticut， are dancing. Theres stomping and hopping and a general getting the shakies out， as fifth-grader Jaelinne Davis says.

Davis： If were like hyper， if we do this， then we can get better at， like， staying mellow and stuff like that. Reporter： By 9 a.m.， Jaelinne will be back at her normal school day with its core curriculum thats graded by a state test at the end of the year. But until then， shell have 80 minutes of exercising and breakfast and so-called enrichment classes. These are things like math， computer games， robotics， game making and hands-on science lessons， all stuff thats fun but has learning snuck into it. Dan Coffey， the principal here， says its about making longer school days less grueling.

Coffey： We want it to be fun and engaging， especially in this morning hour. You know， if I had to send my children to school to do more test prep or more 1）penmanship or more just plain old reading and writing， Im not so interested.

Reporter： That plain old reading and writing is what educators call “academic time.” Advocates for longer school days say kids do best when you increase a blend of enrichment classes with straight academic time and also extra collaboration time for teachers.

Chris Gabrieli is the co-founder of The National Center on Time & Learning， a nonprofit campaigning to make school longer. He says academic time is important， but enrichment time provides a wellrounded education， especially for families that cant afford， say， piano lessons or 2）Cub Scouts.

Gabrieli： And it gives， frankly， high-poverty kids what most middle class and upper middle-class families now want and buy on the outside for their kids.

Reporter： Of course， making school days longer costs money， mostly in teacher salaries. Gabireli says it costs about $1，000 to $1，500 per student per year， making school bills five to ten percent more expensive than what they are now.

But back at Pulaski， Principal Dan Coffey says his extended school program is a lot cheaper. The school system says it will cost between $80 and $115 per kid per year， something that most taxpayers would barely even notice. He does this a couple of ways. By focusing on enrichment time， he needs fewer unionized teachers and can get away with instructors from a local community group. For the teachers that would work the longer school hours， Coffey plans to 3）stagger their schedules and use those large dance and computer classes to dilute the teacher-pupil ratio.

Dan： Id have 21 in the morning and 21 at the end of the day. But during the bulk of the day， Id have 42 teachers here from， lets say， 9 oclock to 2 oclock.

Reporter： Coffey says this will make the 80 minutes in the morning cost effective and sustainable. But theres no way to really tell if enrichment time alone will yield any results.

Benjamin Hansen is a professor of economics at the University of Oregon. He and others who studied the issues say theres some suggestion that enrichment time and after-school programs can lead to higher attendance and graduation rates， but the evidence is far from overwhelming.

In fact， Hansen says， the experiments being done at Pulaski and elsewhere might be the first chance to really study the impact of extending the less expensive enrichment time.

主持人：如果說要延長上學(xué)時間，你的孩子們可能不樂意，但越來越多的決策者卻偏愛這種做法。在美國東部的紐約州和西部的亞利桑那州，都有人在推動公立學(xué)校延長每天的上學(xué)時間，但實行這種做法的成本高得驚人?？的腋裰莸囊凰鶎W(xué)校正嘗試用不同的方式使每天延長的上學(xué)時間變得有趣，而且其費(fèi)用又在可承受的范圍之內(nèi)。

記者：現(xiàn)在時間還很早，是早上七點(diǎn)半，太陽才出來不久，但康涅狄格州梅里登市普拉斯基小學(xué)的孩子們已經(jīng)在跳舞了，他們有的人跺腳，有的人跳躍。就像五年級學(xué)生賈琳恩·戴維斯說的，總之就是要消耗一些多余的精力。

戴維斯：如果我們太興奮，那么我們這樣跳一下舞，就會覺得好些，會安靜一點(diǎn)。

記者：上午9點(diǎn)，賈琳恩就會回到課室上常規(guī)的課程。這些基礎(chǔ)核心課程在年底要通過全州統(tǒng)考進(jìn)行評估。但在這之前，她會有80分鐘時間進(jìn)行鍛煉、吃早餐及上所謂的興趣班。這些興趣班有數(shù)學(xué)、電腦游戲、學(xué)做機(jī)器人、游戲制作及科學(xué)實驗課等，這些課都很有趣，寓教學(xué)于娛樂。這里的校長丹·科菲說，有了這些課程，每天延長的上學(xué)時間就不會那么難熬。

科菲：我們希望這些課具有娛樂性和吸引力，尤其是在早晨這段時間。你知道，如果要我送我自己的孩子去學(xué)校做更多的考試復(fù)習(xí)，或書法練習(xí)，或者只是進(jìn)行常規(guī)閱讀與寫作訓(xùn)練，我是不會感興趣的。

記者：教育工作者稱那些常規(guī)讀寫訓(xùn)練為文化課時間。延長上學(xué)時間的倡導(dǎo)者說，如果適當(dāng)提高興趣班與純文化課之間的時間比例，再加上增加老師間的合作時間，孩子們會做得很好。

全國時間與學(xué)習(xí)中心是一家非贏利機(jī)構(gòu)，他們積極推行延長上學(xué)時間?？死锼埂ぜ硬祭锇＠瞧鋭?chuàng)始人之一。他說，上文化課的時間是重要，但興趣班為學(xué)生提供了接受全面教育的機(jī)會，尤其有利于那些負(fù)擔(dān)不起額外課程費(fèi)用的家庭，比如他們沒法讓孩子上鋼琴課或參加幼童軍。

加布里埃利：坦率地說，大部份中等及中上收入家庭如今會花錢讓他們的孩子在校外學(xué)這些課程，而那些來自極貧家庭的孩子只有通過興趣班才有機(jī)會接觸這些課程。

記者：當(dāng)然，延長上學(xué)時間會產(chǎn)生費(fèi)用，錢主要用于支付教師的薪水。加布里埃利說，每個學(xué)生每年大約要花一千到一千五百美元，使學(xué)校的支出比現(xiàn)在多了百分之五到十。

但在普拉斯基小學(xué)，校長丹·科菲說，他的學(xué)校延長上學(xué)時間所需支出要低得多。校方說，學(xué)校每年在每個孩子身上的花費(fèi)在八十到一百一十五美元之間，這個數(shù)字小到大部份納稅人都不怎么會注意到?？品菩ｉL用了幾種方法去減少收費(fèi)：上學(xué)時間的延長部分以興趣班為主，這樣，他就只需要較少加入了教師工會的老師，轉(zhuǎn)而聘用來自當(dāng)?shù)厣鐓^(qū)組織的老師。對于那些需要延長工作時間的教師，科菲校長準(zhǔn)備交錯安排他們的上課時間表，并安排可以上大班課的跳舞及電腦等課程來降低教師與學(xué)生的比例。

丹：在早上及接近放學(xué)的時段，我們會安排21名教師，但在一天的大部分時間里，比如說從上午9點(diǎn)到下午2點(diǎn)，會有42名教師在工作。

記者：科菲校長說，這樣的安排可使早上的80分鐘課程費(fèi)用更劃算，并能持續(xù)下去，但沒有辦法確切地知道開辦興趣班能帶來什么好處。

本杰明·漢森是俄勒岡大學(xué)的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)教授，他與其他研究此問題的人說，有跡象表明興趣班及課外活動可以提高上課出勤率和畢業(yè)率，但這遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)未足以證明問題。

漢森說，在支出不多的情況下，延長興趣班的學(xué)習(xí)時間究竟會帶來什么樣的影響，在普拉斯基小學(xué)及其他地方的實踐事實上可能還是切實進(jìn)行此項研究的第一次試驗。