Longer School Year ... why? Trailblazers math ... why? says the public

Longer School Year? Longer School Day?

Offhand, I don't see how more time to make posters or watch movies would produce more learning - ?!

I agree absolutely that students need more practice, but public schools like ours aren't going to use extra time to give students practice because public schools don't believe in practice.

Education schools, which train all public school teachers & administrators, believe that memorization and drill are bad. Drill and kill.

U.S. education schools believe in 'conceptual understanding' and 'problem solving,' and they believe that understanding and problem solving are separate from memory, memorization, and practice.

Absence of memorization and practice are a major selling point of Math Trailblazers, by the way. Trailblazers promotional material promises students will achieve 'fluency' in the math facts & the standard algorithms without memorization, worksheets, and drill.

-- parent in New York state