Less school, better scores

It is amazing how people can stubbornly resist reaching the obvious conclusion:

Don’t bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off.

Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a $1 million budget shortfall….

The results? Test scores went up.

So did attendance — for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said. And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years, Clark said.

Imagine if they went to zero! Consider this. Children learn to crawl, walk, and speak multiple languages without ever sitting in a classroom or having a formal teacher. Why, then, is it assumed that they absolutely require one in order to learn history, math, or science? Especially when one takes into account the demonstrated ignorance of those who have had the supposed benefit of 12 or more years of mass education.