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Time is a resource schools still haven't figured out how to use wisely, say Christopher Cross and Milt Goldberg in "Time Out," the first of a series of articles in Edutopia Magazine delving into 10 Big Ideas for Better Schools. The authors contend that "the boundaries of student growth are defined by schedules for bells, buses, and vacations, instead of standards for students and learning." Americans' time-bound mentality -- believing that schools can educate all the people all the time in a school year of 180 days of 6 hours each -- is a self-deception that asks the impossible of students. "We expect them to learn as much as their counterparts abroad in only half the time. If experience, research, and common sense teach nothing else, they confirm the truism that people learn at different rates, and in different ways with different subjects."

Cross, C. & Goldberg, M. (2005). Edutopia (Sep. 2005).  Retrieved from Edutopia 28 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.edutopia.org/time-out-rethinking-hours-america-educates

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