The cover story in Time this week discusses how summer vacation is hurting the progress of US students, especially those in low SES environments. The author details some of the barriers of cost and culture associated with the "summer slide" and discusses how summer vacation contributes to the achievement gap within the US. Its a pretty interesting read and touches on the topics of capital that we have been discussing the last few weeks.
The Case Against Summer Vacation
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The school I work at actually has a mandatory summer program. The schools incoming 5th and 6th grade must attend a day program at the school for 6 weeks where they take math, reading and writing, as well as a couple other "fun" classes. This year they learned how to use music programs on the computer. They do have gym time and go on trip on Fridays. The rising 7th and 8th graders attend a 4 week overnight program at Groton High School run by teachers at the school. Here they take 6 classes (math, reading and writing, technology, outdoors, test prep, and health). they also have gym time, swimming and go on field trips 2-3 times. We do it not only to prevent summer slipping, but also to give the kids experiences to things they may not have had before like the camping they do in Groton.
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