When most people hear that my siblings and I graduated high school years ahead of normal, scored high on state-standardized tests, and attended top colleges and universities, they generally assume our schooling was extremely strict, long, and arduous.

Our schooling was challenging, but it was never impossible. In fact, I realized only years later how shocking it was that I never recall spending more than two hours a day on schoolwork until high school. Even then, I hardly ever worked on homework during evenings or weekends. Thus, it boggles my mind how teachers find work for children as young as six or seven years old to do from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

It makes a lot more sense, however, when I encounter examples of the work these students are assigned. It seems obvious that very little, if any, of the time spent in a school is used for actually educating the students. Instead, public schools, and even many private schools, have become glorified daycares to help parents living in a dual-income economy.

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was forced to edit a video last week over this issue. He controversially proposed “year-round school” and extended school days so that parents “don’t have to pay for childcare.” While some Republicans claimed the video was AI-generated, Ramaswamy’s own spokesperson later confirmed its authenticity.

Whether Ramaswamy is serious about this proposal remains to be seen, but it’s important to note that such a policy would not only raise the taxes citizens pay for local public schools, it would also worsen the education crisis American children currently face.

Why? Because when it comes to schooling, less is more.

As my aforementioned school experience demonstrates, most children without significant learning disabilities in grades K-8 can learn how to write, read, think, argue, perform mathematical equations, understand science, and explore history in less than two hours daily. The rest of their time can be spent in creative play, physical exercise, and exploration. In high school, learning hours may increase, but not to the point that a student should not be able to comfortably hold a part-time job, pursue an active hobby, and foster a social life.

“Advocates and public officials routinely argue that our kids need more time in school,” Forbes contributor Frederick Hess noted in 2023.

“As I’ve noted before, though, the reality is that American students actually spend about 100 hours more in school each year than their peers in other advanced economies. This doesn’t mean that American students necessarily get enough schooling. But it suggests that simply boosting the number of hours kids sit in school may be the wrong goal.”

Hess goes on to cite 2021 research estimating that “intercom announcements, staff visits, and students entering class in troublesome ways” accounted for 2,000 interruptions a year. Research from 2015 found that the school year went from about 1,076 hours to 670 hours when only counting actual instructional time. In other words, roughly 40% of time spent in school was spent doing things other than schoolwork.

Spread out over an 180-day school year, 670 hours is just over three-and-a-half hours a day. Suddenly, my estimation that schoolwork can take two hours or less for K-8 students doesn’t seem so far-fetched. And that’s not even counting the hours spent on woke indoctrination or critical race theory struggle sessions that hinder actual education. The fact is, it is very possible for a student to simultaneously have rigorous education and spend less time in educational institutions.

The current school day is arranged around the schedules of a typical family where both parents work. Yet even this situation leaves at least an hour at the end of the day where two full-time working parents must find childcare, as Ramaswamy pointed out. Thus, it seems that until we remedy the fact that parents are often forced to both work full time, a child’s school schedule will continue to mimic that of a 40-hour, 9-to-5 work week … and education in America will continue to suffer.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

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