Brigid Schulte moves from "harried," "guilty," "worried," and "panicked" to "angry" over the plight of the latchkey family. Why aren't there any great programs to cover that 3 - 6 pm gap in custodial care for her 11 year-old? She's angry because whoever is responsible for nurturing her child in the afternoon has apparently dropped the ball.
Barack Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan understand this plight and believe that kids should spend most of their waking hours, summers included, in school, anyway. It would "level the playing field" with competing countries.
"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."
So much for that precious family time, unstructured play, or hours to linger over a good book. (They'd also like to expand government schooling to include preschool.)
Barbara Curtis argues that the trend to extend the school day, and the school year, should be turned around to allow for more family time, not less. Read Michelle Malkin on the many ways children's school days are filled with nonsense, pernicious and otherwise, that take away from genuine education.
In a related story, the state of Michigan bears down on neighbors helping neighbors with their kids. The woman faces possible jail time. At the opposite end of the childcare spectrum is this service, which requires no human contact whatsoever.
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