Gadfly Bites 6/21/21—The good old summer time

1. Lots of folks worried about a decline in student enrollment last year and what it might mean for the future. Oh. Sorry. Let me fix that: Lots of folks worried about a decline in traditional school district enrollment… (Columbus Dispatch, 6/21/21)
    
2. But before we worry about the future, how about we try to figure out the present first? I fear that will not be possible, if today’s summer school stories are any indication. It seems that school districts in Ohio don’t have a very good handle on what is actually being offered and to whom, even though the programs have already started. In my mind, it’s possible to have formal learning/school-y stuff interspersed with enrichment/camp-y stuff—and you can call it all “summer school” without traumatizing anyone. Kids like to learn, y’all. In this piece, we learn that 2,500 kids are participating in whatever they’re calling “summer school” in Toledo this year. Supposedly there’s some actual math and stuff, but everyone’s going all out to make it neither look nor sound like actual education, because that’s “bad”. One teacher actually said out loud, “You have to give the kids some summer. Everyone looks forward to summer vacation — staff and students.” Not only does that, in my opinion, devalue the learning opportunities that could be provided on the back of pandemic disruptions, but it also ignores reality for a ton of families. As a family with two working parents, our summer looked a lot like our fall back in the day. (Heck, my kids are in college now and are both taking classes over the summer.) There’s nothing wrong, especially now, with taking advantage of more learning time. I feel that because “summer school” has traditionally been punitive, districts are having a very tough time changing their mindset around it. In the same piece, we learn that 566 students in suburban Sylvania will participate in the invitation-only “Summer Swing” program—probably about 60 percent school/40 percent camp stuff based on the description, which is not bad. However, the district also has what is termed “traditional remedial summer schooling” being attended by an unknown number of students, which by the use of that terminology most definitely indicates zero percent camp-type activities. In even-more-suburban Perrysburg, the summer program appears to be fully old-school in nature. How do I know? It is deemed “targeted” (that doesn’t sound like fun, does it?); it focuses on math, reading, STEM, and social-emotional learning; and just 135 first through fourth graders will be attending. (Toledo Blade, 6/18/21)
   
   

3. There is similarly lots to digest in this summerpalooza story from tiny Cambridge, Ohio. A huge boost in attendance for CATS Camp this summer—330 kids attending (a more than 600 percent increase from previous years) and 60 teachers working (a 1000 percent increase from previous years). While it doesn’t sound like the younger kids are getting too much formal education with their funtime, we do find out that middle schoolers are learning how to change tires and to shoot air rifles. Both activities are likely fun, educational, and practical—the way summer school should be. High schoolers, meanwhile, have their choice of Credit Recovery (which sounds like the academic equivalent of no dessert) or Credit Recovery Plus (which sounds like the academic equivalent of dessert only if you eat your broccoli first). (The Daily Jeffersonian, 6/21/21)

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