The question of whether children should attend summer school is a complicated one. Some students, especially from middle school onward, may have no choice if they fail a class during the regular school year. They have to do enough to make up for a failing grade or their ability to graduate, or high school can be jeopardized.
Other times, lower grade teachers recommend summer school to parents when students fail in a particular subject or exhibit mediocre academic performance. An alternate scenario is that a parent believes a child would benefit from school during the summer, but the school is not necessarily supportive of this. Some private schools do not offer summer schools, but children may be able to attend classes through their public school district.
In a situation where you have no choice, there really isn’t much to answer unless you don’t want your child to graduate or move on to the next class. However, in the lower classes you mostly have the option to refuse summer school and you may have specific reasons for refusal. A child visiting a second parent in another state or area of the country during the summer can be a very good reason why your child should not attend summer school, particularly when it is an option and not a requirement.
There are also some parents who really don’t appreciate summer school because it fits into their plans, it may be offered in an area that isn’t easily accessible, or because they feel a child’s failure isn’t due to academic failure. A child who has had a very stressful year and gone through a parent’s divorce, parent’s death, or other extremely disturbing circumstances may have simply been blurry throughout the year or had multiple absences that resulted in poor grades. Again, in the lower grades, you can usually make a strong case that a child shouldn’t be in summer school based on a child’s life experiences, and particularly if they have been average to excellent students in the past.
It may be a little more difficult in a public school district in the lower grades to get your child into summer school because you just want them to go. Normally, summer school is determined by teacher recommendation, and you will need to make a strong case to the teacher why your child should attend. Teachers often have certain “tests” to decide when to recommend a child to summer school, which can be implemented at the district level. These include things like looking at your child’s ability to perform at a classroom level and analyzing things like learning disabilities and standardized scores or tests. Keeping a record of grades and test performance and knowing your child’s academic ability can help you explain why your child should participate.
If you can’t convince a school district that your child should attend summer school, you might consider a move to a district that will allow summer attendance or that operates on a year-round calendar. When this isn’t available, look to courses offered by private learning centers or through various organizations that can help your child become more academically prepared for next year’s job. If the price of these programs is prohibitive, ask your child’s school district or teacher to lend you some books that will allow you to teach your child during the summer and help him review difficult concepts.
Some parents feel strongly that summer is sacred. Formal learning should not enter the process. Yet many parents also express how “bored” their kids get after a few days or two of nothing but time on their hands. You can still preserve much of your child’s free time and have them spend half an hour to an hour in the morning working on challenging concepts. It doesn’t take long to make a half sheet of long division, to fill out a multiplication table, to write a few sentences, or to spend some time reading aloud. By allowing for short periods of regular home study and still leaving plenty of time for leisure, your children may actually enjoy their free time more and be less likely to be bored.
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