It seems incredible that this debate is taking place today in our country, because in our childhood we did not talk about this at all (as far as I know) and children suck our mornings with our afternoons at school, leaving us very little free time to do what probably motivated us the most: play and give free rein to our imagination.
Today, on the other hand, there are more Spanish schools that carry out the continuous day than those that leave it, since 62% already have intensive hours, compared to 47% who did it in 2009. Now, like any change, the doubts appear because there are those who think that it is better not to change and there are those who believe that the ideal is to do so. The perfect answer to the question does not exist, but there are several arguments for and against each of the options and that is why we are going to talk about it today: Continuous day or split day?
What is the continuous journey
Before entering to argue about one or the other of the options, we must explain what the continuous journey consists of. It is a schedule for schools in which all school hours are compacted so that they have class until two p.m.
In order for a school to adopt this day, a vote is taken in the center with the fathers and mothers as protagonists of the decision.
What the studies say
The grace is then to know what the studies done comparing both types of working day. However, grace is not complete because studies are based on surveys and the results are inconclusive. Let's say that for a study to be relatively useful, it would take two very similar schools in operation and with similar results that could be compared once one of them changed the day to day. For the results to be taken into account the differences should be quite marked between one school and the other, since if there is little difference one could always say that the cause is chance.
Personally I have heard of studies that indicate that it is better to leave the day, however everything depends on the conditions in which it is done (and then I talk about it).
Offering my opinion about it
Then, in the absence of valid data on which to support decisions, only opinions and arguments remain for and against, for everything on the table to choose. I offer you my personal opinion based on how I think the days should be and then everyone can argue about it.
If I had to vote today on my children's school day I would opt for the continuous journey for a matter of empathy: if they give me a choice if I prefer to work in the morning or afternoon, or if instead I prefer to split my day in two, I will always choose the first, because otherwise the time between the start of work and the end is always greater and it is more difficult to take advantage of free time. The same thing happens with the children, at noon they return home to eat and play for a while and then they have to go back to school to be there between 90 and 120 minutes, making the school really end at around five in the afternoon, when it remains Less late ahead. If they stay in the dining room they spend eight hours away from home (like any adult in their work) and if they do extracurricular activities then imagine the days that many children cascade.
Finishing at two, instead, they have all afternoon ahead to play, also do extracurricular or to be with the family. The problem, of course, is that some parents have schedules in which time to spend with children would not improve much either.
When it comes to food, I don't have much trouble, since my children don't stay in the dining room. However, it is said that in case of continuous work, it could happen that many schools eliminated the dining room service (although everything must be said, many children no longer stay because they have reduced the dining room scholarships with the damn cuts).
At the travel level, in our house it would fall as a blessing from heaven, because we currently have to make four daily trips to take them and pick them up, being those of the afternoon quite annoying, if we consider that they enter at 15:00 and leave at 4:30 p.m. You leave them at school, you come home and then you have to go out again to pick them up.
With regard to the performance of children, it is difficult to say that with one type of day they will have greater performance than with the other. People contrary to the continuous day explain that it is not recommended that children receive more than three teaching hours at once, and it is something that happens once they do the only recess in the morning.
On the other hand, the time they go in the afternoon when the day is split is not that it is brilliantly productive, I think, because children are less receptive, more dispersed, they know they are short and they don't attend as much as in the morning (Come on, it could be just as unproductive as the time after the morning playground in the case of the continuous journey).
As a suggestion, we could adopt the Finnish model, in which the children rest 15 minutes every hour, knowing that it is impossible for them to attend longer periods of time. A continuous day with several breaks will be in my way of seeing more productive than one in which they go home, disconnect and then have to reconnect, as they do now and more productive than a continuous day with a single pause of 30 minutes.
If we talk about the free afternoons, of all the time that remains, many people complain that with the continuous day they can miss the extracurricular ones that are offered in the schools and many people, with reason, that there will be no one with the children when Get home. In such cases, or in cases where families do not have the means, time or motivation to enrich their children's afternoons, some may end up spending their afternoons in front of the TV, computer or console.
In these cases, logically, it would be interesting that accompanying the continuous journey the cities will offer activities for children, that parents were informed of these offers and that there were even activities for parents and children (or that some groups of parents created them), to continue offering stimuli, culture and education to children in the afternoon. We are in times of crisis and enterprising people are not lacking, so I am sure that before the birth of a need for leisure, sport and culture in children, centers would appear trying to meet these needs.
Speaking now of budgets, at the economic level less money is allocated to education, because when fewer children remain after school fewer children stay in the dining room and fewer children go out of school. To prevent the continuous journey from becoming a solution, a cut, the money saved should be dedicated to making cities more child friendly, more prepared to live with them, less gray, greener, with more cultural offer at reduced cost, etc.
Your opinion?
After explaining a little what my position is, I would like you to give us your opinionWhat do you think about it and if your children are already working continuously, how is the experience?
In my view, and doing an empathy exercise again, if I were a child again, I would be much happier going to school until two in the afternoon, with the whole afternoon ahead to grow as a person with my parents or with other children (or with both) and with other activities. Even the afternoons could be used to find information about what they learned in the morning if they managed to motivate the children enough to continue being curiously curious.
