Summer School
It is the last week of school.
Children all over America are going
On field trips, having assemblies,
Parties, and water fights with their teachers.
Teachers who have not smiled all year long
Are pulling out all the stops. They are scrambling
Into their Laura Ingalls Wilder long dresses and
Bonnets, to wow the children.
They are becoming human, something they
Dared not do all year long. The children are
Learning things they did not know - for example,
Mrs. Fanning is married, Mrs, Seabroke has a
Daughter and six sons.
The teachers’ walls are coming down, and in a big
Way. They are laughing, grinning, high-fiving each
Other. We made it another year, they are saying to
Each other. We made it! We survived! And they
Did; another year, with another class. They are ready
For their summer break.
And the saddest part of summer break is this. The
Teachers who don’t allow themselves the summer
Break, the ones who teach summer school all summer
Are usually the ones who needed a summer break
Most of all. But they have shopped too much
Which increases anxiety, which not only has created more anxiety
But has forced them to work all summer during summer
School with children who also needed the summer break
The most of all.
Do you know who signs up first for summer school now?
It is the A students; they love school. The bottoms, the ones who are
Mandated to go are the least likely to sign up until they
Learn that not going means being in grade 3 again next
Year. That usually does the trick.
What I have never figured out is: how do we think
Six weeks of summer school is going to be able to
Teach what nine months of school did not?
That’s what
I really want to know.
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