More school?

A friend of mine told me about this program that is being tested in Boston. I can't imagine sending my kids to school for that long every day? The American educational system seems to think that if it's not working, let's just add more. 20 years ago they managed to teach more in shorter days, why do they need longer ones now? I don't think it's because kids are stupider. I think it's because
1. Society and parents expect school to teach the kids everything - including stuff they should be learning at home.

2. Sometimes the old fashioned way of doing things works and we've invested far too much time and energy in quick fix ways to teach kids. Instead of giving them challenges we want learning to be super easy for them. Kids respond to challenges and super easy leads to laziness, not learning.