Brain Drain

After reading this article on "Summer Brain Drain", I am tempted to revoke Emily and Katherine's Summer Reading registration at the library to see what will happen.

Seriously, I think that this "summer reinforcement" stuff is a bunch of crap. It's summer vacation. I don't think that kids should be forced to practice their skills over the summer if they don't want to. It just so happens that my kids asked me to register for the program and they ask me to do practice worksheets that their teachers sent home. They like to do the work and that's fine, I am not going to say no. I certainly don't think it should be required and I definitely don't think the kids should actually be rewarded for it when they get back to school (the librarian at our local library will be handing out reading certificates at the beginning of the school year in each individual classroom for those who participated). It's not like the kids who didn't participate did anything wrong, they just didn't feel like it, so why should they have to sit through watching another kid get rewarded?

Y'all know I am big advocate of literacy, and somewhere deep down I am sure I could find some importance in my mind for math, but I really think the teachers should just do a little review in the beginning of the year. It's not like the skills will be lost forever, maybe they just need a little reviving.

Planning my summer vacations around what my kid will be studying next year as the article suggests? Puh-lease. I can see it now.

"Honey, let's take the kids to Disney this summer. Oh, darn it, never mind, that's not on the fourth grade curriculum. Let's see, how 'bout going to the Arctic Circle? I think they will be studying Polar Bears" (not that there is anything wrong with visiting the Arctic Circle but, you get my drift).

If my kids planned our meal as part of a "math assignment" we'd be eating mac n cheese, pizza, and waffles on a rotating schedule every week. I need just a bit more variety than that, thankyouverymuch.

I guess the bottom line is this: If your kids show some initiative and actually want to read and do math all summer, then go for it. But don't force them to do it. It just doesn't seem right.