Summer School

Part of being a teacher means not having to work during the summer. Or at least that is the myth that is perpetuated to ensure that educators remain underpaid. Most teachers I know work during the summer. Whether it is a summer job to augment the weak salary they receive, teaching summer school, or engaging in numerous professional development tasks (workshops, seminars, lecture series, etc) most teachers I know don't just check out come June. Let's not forget all the preemptive lesson planning for next year's classes. That being said, I am working this summer.

I am currently teaching summer school in addition to all the PD stuff and lesson planning for 4 new preps next year. Its a busy summer, but I still find time to rant about changes needed in education.

One of the problems I have witnessed with public education is this nice little loophole known as credit recovery. Why is that a student can sleep their way through a year long class and then trade in that well-deserved F for an A after a few weeks of packet work? I have always felt this undermined the motivation to do well in class to begin with. It's like the student can simply say forget this teacher/class/subject; I'll just take it in summer school.

I don't fault the students. If I were a student today I am sure I would be just as much of a slacker as I was when I was in high school. I was always on the look out for the most bang for my buck. In terms of schooling that meant as little work as possible for the highest grade. Had I known how to work the system and shirk any school work during the year for a quick jaunt through cyberhigh or a brief 6 week cram course, I might have taken them up on the offer.

That's actually one of the reasons I gave up my summer freedom this year to reteach world history in summer school. I'm not teaching a batch of kids looking to get around their teacher, I'm simply reteaching the same students I failed during the year. Offering them another chance to engage with the material but of course crammed into a six week period. I'll be the first to admit that what I am doing is not comparable to what we did during the year and it irks me that this should be valued the same as a year's worth of work. Right now I am simply piling on the work and hoping that in some way it amounts to a comparable level of work.

The way our school works it, is that students have to attend 60 hours of classes (minus the excused absences they allow) as well as complete 45 hours of additional work at home. To meet that expectation I am having students complete in addition to homework, an extended research paper. I don't know that it will amount to 45 hours of instruction but I will do my best to see that it does.

I really wonder about the rationale of not having students repeat classes or at the very least complete a comparable amount of work to a year long class. It seems to me that today much of education is concerned with students meeting standards rather than work. With that thinking in mind, the model has changed from what work did you do to what stuff did you memorize. If all schools want from students is to memorize facts and regurgitate it onto a standardized test, why not offer students an alternative to summer school: testing out of it?

Just seems like we are wasting our time if its not about teaching students to have a work ethic, to value what they produce, and ultimately to hold them accountable. If its only about meeting standards, why do we need to spend an entire year of school devoted to what amounts to simply test-prep. A few weeks of condensed instruction, a few tests and bam they're on to the next subject. Is that the future of education? I certainly hope not.