New School Schedule

I have been hearing about getting a new school schedule all week and about how other countries have longer days and more days. I used to have a penpal in Russia who only had Sunday off and had school all day including a ton of homework that would take up most of her time. The Japanese go to school longer and are extremely dedicated to schoolwork and have a system that helps the more intellegent/ harder working students to get into better school.
Even though the education in Hawaiian public schools isn't very good they have year round school which probibly helps them.
I think we shouldn't get rid of summer but maybe make the days a bit longer or somehow find a different way to teaching that will hit home with every student.
I also think that we should have a system where every student goes out of country as a foregin exchange student at least once before their graduation. Why do this? Because people need to better understand the cultures and peoples of other lands. We should be able to make connections in other countries and also learn how to cope and work with other cultures.
The american mind doesn't always think outside its borders but I think we all need to. Also we need to have the students see how different things can be in other places. I think that then students would be more interested in school and understand how the world works and understand the winds of change.