Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Summer School


It is so hard to concentrate on anything during this heat wave. I am a responsible adult and have to force myself out of the air conditioning.   I am sitting in front of the television, air conditioner on high, thinking about those poor kids in summer school, particularly about my friend's class of  52 students.   Summer school classes have no cap.   These kids either are extremely limited (an average fifth grader could pass this course), did absolutely nothing, or did not attend class during the year. I wonder if anyone has any expectations of their learning now. Maybe they are lucky enough to have an air conditioned classroom, maybe not. And, without a home cooling system, studying will be non existent.  It doesn't exist under the best conditions.

 I recently read an op Ed piece in Newsday calling for year round school. I can't see what it would accomplish. It is just too damn hot to sit and concentrate. Bloomberg, who needs a room air conditioner installed in his car sees no need to supply kids with the same. Summer is time for recharging. Kids will not miss anything by being away from school for two months.   It might even do them some good.

1 comment:

ChiTown Girl said...

Oh, honey, you hit the nail on the head! The summer's that I've taught summer school were just brutal! The last summer I taught, we had hit index reading of 100+ for weeks!

Last week, CPS actually cancelled summer school classes because of the 100+ temps we had. That meant the heat index readings were around 118!

CPS went to year-round school several years ago. The Hell-Hole was one of the schools that went to that schedule, and it was torture! We started the first week of August, when the weather here in Chicago is at its hottest. I'm so thankful I won't be dealing with this crap when school starts in 2 weeks.