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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

What baffles me is that we seem to have accepted that an adult's work should be about five days a week, eight hours a day. If you go beyond that, you hit diminishing returns and it may even be outright counterproductive.

Yet we put our kids in school five days a week, eight hours a day, then we give them homework for nights and weekends!

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> we put our kids in school five days a week, eight hours a day

Do kids spend 8 hours a day at school now? Back when I was in school, it was 9-3, including an hour for lunch, plus 5 minutes between classes. On top of that, we got a lot more vacation than I've gotten at any job. If I do the math on it, we spent a total of less than 1000 hours a year in school, less than half the time I spend at work in a year.

8:30 to 3, plus the hour on either side to get to and from school, plus the 2 hours of homework, plus extracurriculars 2-3 days a week. It varies a lot, but it usually makes for long days.

My school (private) had nominal 8 hour days (8-4), but 4 to 4.5 hours of class. The remaining time was spread between two breaks (we only had 3 classes on a given day).

I think 6 hours/day is pretty normal these days, based on my younger sibling and teacher relatives. Definitely less than a "normal" 40 hour workday.

At my school students have four 1.5 hour classes a day. Juniors and Seniors can have 1 of those periods be an "off period" which they can use as a study hall or they can just leave campus.

Plus lunch and 8 minutes between classes.

The school day is from 9 - 4.

This is very different from the school I taught at in Massachusetts which starts before 7am and has seven 45 min classes (plus lunch).

It really all depends on your district. It seems many commenters here believe that all schools work the same way their school works, but they are actually remarkably different across the country.

In France, in the suburbs yes they did. And apparently they still do. You know the place CNN says it is unsafe to go to.

8h/weeks, 1h homework. Extra activities on 'spare time'. Extra homeworks for those who wishes to compete with elite/private schools on national exams while being substantially given less teachers, less rooms, less credits worse appreciation in a so called meritocratic egalitarian system.

This WAS SPARTA!

This how I was raised. And I wish that to no kids on earth.

EDIT: the idea you got it tough in life will makes you stronger and more likely to succeed is a plain big lie given by the one with a silver spoon in their mouth to divert the attention from their case. The first part is true : you get stronger. The success part is false. Success is mainly a game that is based on rigged randomness.

Is that really that different than an adult work day? I think I actually have more time off now than when I was in grade school.

I used to get on the school bus at 7, start school at 8, go to 2:30 with around an hour for lunch/recess, then two hours of sports practice (or two hours of killing time, then two hours of practice, during basketball season, since we only had one gym), and get home either at 5 or at 7. That's a long day, and throwing an hour or more of homework on top leaves you with pretty much nothing left.

College, now those were the days. 2-3 hours of class, and maybe half the time 2-3 hours of work study.

I checked the elementary schools around me, and they all seem to have a 6.5 hour school day which includes a 45 minute - 60 minute lunch and 3 hours/week of physical education/recess.

They have a 180 day year spread over 42 weeks, so that's 30 days off during that time. If extended for a full 52 week year, that'd be close to 37 days of vacation.

Which schools are in session 8 hours/day? I'm ignoring optional extracurricular activities since those are at the discression of students/parents.

This is a fantastic, amazing, wonderful, and never mentioned point. I am beat after 8 hours of mental output. I mean, I sit in a chair (or stand) at my desk most of the day, and take frequent breaks, and I'm still tired.

Why would I expect more of a child?

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