Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-16   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

LONGER SCHOOL DAYS ... YUCK!

Weekly Reader, in its National Survey on Education, asked students in grades four, five and six what they thought about a longer school year. Eighty-one percent were against the idea. There also was opposition - 77 percent - to lengthening the school day by an hour.

Fourth-graders were most receptive to both ideas - 21 percent favored extending the school year and 26 percent favored lengthening the school day, the survey found.

The findings were based on written survey responses by about 19,000 students in the three grades.

Last spring, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning said that lengthening the school day and the school year are just two ways that schools can free themselves from the ``shackles of time'' threatening to cripple American education.

``The six-hour, 180-day school year should be relegated to museums, an exhibit from our education past,'' the commission said.

Since 1985, when Weekly Reader's survey was first conducted, there has been an 8 percentage point increase - to the current 36 percent - in the proportion of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders who said they liked school a lot. An additional 55 percent said they liked it some.

Girls still like school more than boys do - 42 percent to 29 percent - ``but encouragement is to be found in the steady overall rise among all students in these grade levels in how much they like school,'' the survey said.

Forty-two percent of the students said math was their favorite subject, up 10 percentage points since 1989; 44 percent also thought it was the most important one for them to learn. Writing, on the other hand, was their least favorite subject and the one they considered least important.

Twelve percent said science was the most important subject to study, but nearly 25 percent say it is their favorite subject. ``Obviously, elementary teachers are making progress in science education, as demonstrated by the increase in the number of students who enjoy it,'' said Sandra F. Maccarone, Weekly Reader's editor-in-chief. ``But it looks as if we need to find a better way to communicate its importance, given the national priority on science and technology.''

The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported Aug. 17 that students had begun to make progress in math and science education but that their writing and reading skills were still lacking.

On other issues, the survey said:

Fifty-three percent of the students said computers should be taught in schools; 72 percent viewed physical education as an important component of instruction.

The most common problem students run into in school is ``not the use of drugs or of alcohol, not fighting or vandalism, not even cheating; it is incomplete homework.'' Drugs, alcohol and weapons in school were each cited by 2 percent of the students responding.

Nearly all the students said they planned to go to college. ``Statistically, however, not much chance exists that more than 60 percent of them will actually do that,'' the survey said.

Nearly half the girls, but only 13 percent of the boys, said they wanted to become teachers, a field predominantly female.