早起的鸟儿吃得好？

By Charles Lane

在中国，社会、学校、家长一直在呼吁给学生减负，而减负的措施之一就是减少每天的上课时间。而大洋彼岸的美国，居然有人想要延长学生每天的上学时间。这又是怎么回事呢？

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：如果说要延长上学时间，你的孩子们可能不乐意，但越来越多的决策者却偏爱这种做法。在美国东部的纽约州和西部的亚利桑那州，都有人在推动公立学校延长每天的上学时间，但实行这种做法的成本高得惊人。康涅狄格州的一所学校正尝试用不同的方式使每天延长的上学时间变得有趣，而且其费用又在可承受的范围之内。

记者：现在时间还很早，是早上七点半，太阳才出来不久，但康涅狄格州梅里登市普拉斯基小学的孩子们已经在跳舞了，他们有的人跺脚，有的人跳跃。就像五年级学生贾琳恩·戴维斯说的，总之就是要消耗一些多余的精力。

戴维斯：如果我们太兴奋，那么我们这样跳一下舞，就会觉得好些，会安静一点。

记者：上午9点，贾琳恩就会回到课室上常规的课程。这些基础核心课程在年底要通过全州统考进行评估。但在这之前，她会有80分钟时间进行锻炼、吃早餐及上所谓的兴趣班。这些兴趣班有数学、电脑游戏、学做机器人、游戏制作及科学实验课等，这些课都很有趣，寓教学于娱乐。这里的校长丹·科菲说，有了这些课程，每天延长的上学时间就不会那么难熬。

科菲：我们希望这些课具有娱乐性和吸引力，尤其是在早晨这段时间。你知道，如果要我送我自己的孩子去学校做更多的考试复习，或书法练习，或者只是进行常规阅读与写作训练，我是不会感兴趣的。

记者：教育工作者称那些常规读写训练为文化课时间。延长上学时间的倡导者说，如果适当提高兴趣班与纯文化课之间的时间比例，再加上增加老师间的合作时间，孩子们会做得很好。

全国时间与学习中心是一家非赢利机构，他们积极推行延长上学时间。克里斯·加布里埃利是其创始人之一。他说，上文化课的时间是重要，但兴趣班为学生提供了接受全面教育的机会，尤其有利于那些负担不起额外课程费用的家庭，比如他们没法让孩子上钢琴课或参加幼童军。

加布里埃利：坦率地说，大部份中等及中上收入家庭如今会花钱让他们的孩子在校外学这些课程，而那些来自极贫家庭的孩子只有通过兴趣班才有机会接触这些课程。

记者：当然，延长上学时间会产生费用，钱主要用于支付教师的薪水。加布里埃利说，每个学生每年大约要花一千到一千五百美元，使学校的支出比现在多了百分之五到十。

但在普拉斯基小学，校长丹·科菲说，他的学校延长上学时间所需支出要低得多。校方说，学校每年在每个孩子身上的花费在八十到一百一十五美元之间，这个数字小到大部份纳税人都不怎么会注意到。科菲校长用了几种方法去减少收费：上学时间的延长部分以兴趣班为主，这样，他就只需要较少加入了教师工会的老师，转而聘用来自当地社区组织的老师。对于那些需要延长工作时间的教师，科菲校长准备交错安排他们的上课时间表，并安排可以上大班课的跳舞及电脑等课程来降低教师与学生的比例。

丹：在早上及接近放学的时段，我们会安排21名教师，但在一天的大部分时间里，比如说从上午9点到下午2点，会有42名教师在工作。

记者：科菲校长说，这样的安排可使早上的80分钟课程费用更划算，并能持续下去，但没有办法确切地知道开办兴趣班能带来什么好处。

本杰明·汉森是俄勒冈大学的经济学教授，他与其他研究此问题的人说，有迹象表明兴趣班及课外活动可以提高上课出勤率和毕业率，但这远远未足以证明问题。

汉森说，在支出不多的情况下，延长兴趣班的学习时间究竟会带来什么样的影响，在普拉斯基小学及其他地方的实践事实上可能还是切实进行此项研究的第一次试验。