Saturday
Aug012009
August 1, 2009 Goodbye, Summer
Not just my summer (although that's fading alarmingly fast.) Maybe yours, too. This week TIME magazine mentioned our President and Education Secretary's predilection toward year-round schooling.
There are some cool things about summer, like:
And there are some dumb things about summer, like:
Bottom line: I think summer school is a great idea. Shorter terms, maybe four per year, with holidays between. Yes, and we should also adopt the British system of calling vacation "holiday." It sounds so much classier.
There are some cool things about summer, like:
- The beach. And, fine, the pool is an acceptable substitute.
- Cold beer and grilled bratwurst. By the light of a lantern in the evening. When you don't have to get up early and teach the next day.
- Friends. Yes, I know you can have friends anytime, but we don't get a chance to socialize much during the school year. And I've eaten more steak in the last month than in the whole school year prior. Most recently in a Guinness-curry-chocolate sauce, which was most swoon-worthy thanks to Jim.
- Sudden drenching rainstorms. I've loved these since before I stopped being afraid of them.
And there are some dumb things about summer, like:
- Mosquitoes.
- Summer camp (I'm not referring to a week or two in a cabin with spiders, canoes and campfires, building character. I'm referring to the obsessive to-the-moment schedules of many kids, who go to so many specialized camps they hardly have a day to themselves.)
- A non-agrarian society which doesn't really need summers off anymore.
- A dumber population. Sorry, it's true: look around, and you'll see we are far below the standard in Asia and Europe. By contrast, a test at Jersey City High school in 1885 contained the following questions.
Find the product of 3 + 4x + 5x2 -6x3 and 4 - 5x - 6x2.
Write a sentence containing a noun used as an attribute, a verb in the perfect tense potential mood, and a proper adjective.
Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why?
(Here's the killer: it was a test for admission to high school. So the kids taking the test were 8th graders. I'm a high school math and English teacher, and I don't think I could answer any of those questions! Taken from The Bell Curve.)
Bottom line: I think summer school is a great idea. Shorter terms, maybe four per year, with holidays between. Yes, and we should also adopt the British system of calling vacation "holiday." It sounds so much classier.
Categories: Current Events | Media | Methods | School Policies
Current Events | Media | Methods | School Policies Tags: childhood, white house
childhood, white house
Reader Comments (4)
How I would love to just sit over a coffee (or a nice Yuengling on the porch) and discuss this issue at length with you. Miss being close to you, friend.
Em,
Didn't we have summers in 1885?
I think it means we've just given up on instruction. For a long time our schools have been about socialization (isn't this what Dewey wanted?) so it's no wonder we're ijdgits.
The least we can do is give our children some time to relax and unwind and be kids.
Kirst, I don't understand -- isn't it just as much fun to trade snippy remarks in a public forum?! Miss you, too. :)
RC, if summers were truly as you described them, I'd be the first to argue they are important. Unfortunately, they tend to be blitzes that leave kids leaving a real "vacation" just when school starts again. And socialization? Please. Try no hugging, no hitting, no learning to work things out. Just a lotta lawsuit phobia.
Em,
You don't have Dewey's idea of society. Socialization, of course, for what? For factory work, naturally.
It does a good job of that. But teaching? A Christian vision of society? None of those things...