President Obama's proposal to make not just the school year longer, but also the actual school day longer, is ridiculous!  He seems to think that kids need more time in school when some people think less school hours would be more appropriate. By the time most kids have finished after school activities and homework, and have spent the little free time they have doing what they want, it is usually already 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. and that doesn't count all other out of school activities that kids have. They have to get up at 6:00 or 6:30 a.m. to be able to get to school on time so this leaves not even eight hours for sleep, which is what is recommended as an average for teenagers each night. When they get to school teachers have trouble getting students to stay focused or even to stay awake.  If they made the school days longer it would make the problem even worse. Students would have less time to get everything done that they have to do after school, while trying to fit in homework and sleeping somewhere in their schedule. Not to mention making the school year longer would just give students less time to have the break they need from the nine month school year as it is. It is also said that extending the school year and/or school day would cause the government to have to pay a lot more money to support teachers and other staff, who would also have to stay longer, giving teachers little to no time to do what they need to do after school. While President Obama thinks that making kids stay in school longer will make them smarter, the fact of the matter is it would make students mentally and physically drained, thus making their grades and focusing span shrink, which would not help the students at all, it would just hurt them.