As the weather forecast rolls out sun after sun with 28°c all week, summer break begins and school is (finally) all done.
Oh, wait, no it isn’t. At least not for thousands of students who are enrolled in summer school for the month of July in the Calgary area alone. Nationally, there are about a hundred thousand kids enrolled in summer school. Recent articles on Global TV and in The Globe and Mail have started to pick on what seems to be an unusual pattern: each year, more and more teenagers are attending summer school. It doesn’t seem to be a new trend either, as the Calgary Sun picked up on it about two years ago, but rates have only continued to increase since then.
One of these many enrolled teenagers would be myself, as last year I took Math 20 Pure, and this year I’m in the midst of taking English 30-1.
So why are so many youth suddenly seemingly so interested in spending their valuable summer time in the classroom? The historic reasons seem to still be accurate for some, back from time when “summer school” had negative connotations and seemed to be reserved for the kids who didn’t work hard enough during the year. There are still some youth in my classes whose aim it is to upgrade English 30-2, whose time in high school was spent doing more skipping than studying, and perhaps whose rate of project completion was fairly minimal.
But these are the minority this year, as well as my class last year, as most of the teenagers there are the exact same age as me and doing the exact same thing: getting a class out of the way so we can have more room in our schedule in Grade 12.Whether this means getting a spare and being able to do better in your other classes, or taking more courses, most students are now in summer school because they’re over-achievers, not under-achievers.
While this may not present itself as a bad thing, there are some possible negative side effects. First, students are now less able to hold down summer jobs or volunteer as much and gain some necessary experience, which is just as useful as grades when applying for scholarships. They’re also mostly unable to go on things like camping and hiking trips which, really, are the kinds of things you remember when you’re 50 – not summer school.
It also limits our summer to only one month which isn’t quite enough to catch up on relaxation and vacationing at a key time in our life where these things should be easy and appreciated before we have to work all summer, every summer. Seriously, if I only have four more summers off, why am I spending it in school? I suppose I can’t really justify condemning summer school since I myself attend, but there are some interesting ideas to think about why it may not be the best idea and why other experiences beyond school are also important for youth. Of course, students who need to attend should still do so, and I don’t mean to discourage anyone who really wants to.
Will this trend continue upwards? Should students be discouraged from giving up a month of their summer, or will summer turn into the socially-mandatory 11th month of school for all those who might be designated “over-achievers“?