Summer school has always had a reputation for being a joke. Show up for 4-6 weeks during the summer break, do some basic worksheets, watch some movies, stay out of the hair of the burnt-out teachers who are only there because they needed the extra money, and you'd get a credit or two towards graduation. It's been a joke stretching back decades.

But now, they've taken it to the next level. One of our local public school districts has announced their new plan for summer school this year. It involves... get this... attending four days of class in exchange for earning a credit. (And naturally, they're only 6 hour school days too.)

So all the other poor schmucks worked every day for an entire semester - 18 freaking weeks - to earn a class credit. You, on the other hand, were smart enough to jack around for the entire semester, skipping class and smoking weed in the bathrooms, or staying home and playing video games. And now you get to saunter in to summer school for less than one damn week and get the same class credit as they did?

Fuck that noise.

That's a class credit in exchange for ostensibly a mere 24 hours of classroom time, though we all know that will just be babysitting/busy work anyway, in true summer school fashion.

There was little chance before of a kid getting anything close to useful education from just a month or so of a summer school class. Now they've given up even that bare pretense of teaching and learning. There is zero - no, less than zero! - chance of a kid learning what they need from a class in just four days.

The whole public school system is in shambles, and seem bound and determined to outdo themselves in their headlong race to the bottom with each passing year.

I had to attend summer school one year if I wanted to graduate on time. I thought it would suck. It didn't. In fact: It was probably the most enjoyable time I had during my entire four years of high school.

It was not a joke. We were there to learn. And learn I did. I ended-up with straight A's and I earned every one of them.

That was one of the few times in school I not only did my homework, but, actually looked forward to doing it.

There was this one girl and I that ended-up competing with one another for which would be at the top of the class. It was pretty neck-and-neck, but, she beat me in the final. ISTR I placed in the 98th percentile and she in the 99th - or something like that.

We both did so well in the class the teacher had us tutoring other students who were struggling.

ISTR one day, out of the whole time, the teacher told us that if everybody did well on that day's test, we could bring our bathing suits the next day, we'd have a half day, then go to the school's pool.

This is going to sound like something out of Young Sheldon, but, it was one of the best summers I ever had in my youth.

That was fifty-five years ago, though. School was different then.

And I'm assuming you had to attend for more than four days, right?

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
And I'm assuming you had to attend for more than four days, right?

Oh yes. I don't recall it taking the entire summer vacation, but, I do seem to recall it took a pretty decent chunk out of it, the classes were longer than the one-hour school year classes, and I think they were every weekday?

4 days, 6 hours a day is 24 hours for 1 high school credit. What's the number of hours required for a high school credit in the normal school year?

On a side note, I did a 12 credit summer in college once. The number of hours spent in class was the same as if I had taken those classes during a normal semester.

Be happy you can still send your kids to summer school. Miami dade summer school is only for kids that need to retake or improve.. it used to be that summer school was voluntary and could take classes to get ahead not just make up. Plus you could take P.E. or art or music all day and have a free summer camp for you kids.

I did May Interm in college for some credits for classes I didn’t want to take during the school year. Started the day after classes ended in May and went for 4 weeks. 4 hours a day. 4 days a week I think. It was intense but, the professors for all the classes that I took were cool however; they packed a lot of learnins’ in a short amount of time. I enjoyed it.

quote:

Originally posted by gas226:
it used to be that summer school was voluntary and could take classes to get ahead not just make up.

I did that, to be able to graduate a semester early.

Freshman year high school flunked Algebra 1 and opted to take summer school woodworking class to make up the lost credit then in sophmore year passed with A"s and B"s ...Teacher knew i could do it but was just lazy.. Algebra 2 and Geomentry no problems.... After high school started work in a custom cabinet shop (2yrs) Then 9 1/2yrs US Army which led to 30 plus years as a custom cabinet maker (residential / commercial / industrial). ................................................... drill sgt.

If its 24 hours of the same subject, then that's 48 days of block scheduled class during the normal school year, which with random holidays and the like would be about 10 weeks...not TOO far off from a normal semester.

Seems comparable anyway.

I qualify for a Bachelors in Korean, even though I attended for only 68 weeks, that's more than 4000 hours of Korean study.

I took summer school classes and worked in the afternoon and attended football practice. I avoided being at home. I took several history courses and they were not any easier. Still had time to mess around with my friends on the weekends.

Being 1 of 5 kids my mom signed us up for summer school most of my youth.

I guess it was like free camp for us.

Classes I took were Wood shop, Band, Art etc.

Failed first semester of AP English my sophomore year. Had to take summer school. The teacher was a junior high teacher teaching high school English. He was awesome. I learned more in that summer school class than any other English class I'd ever been in. He had a unique name, Rod Stewart. Go to get my class schedule my senior year, and was shocked to see his name, he was going to be my senior English teacher. I told everybody as soon as we got in class they were going to love him. Everybody loved his class, even people who loathed English. He made learning fun, that was 23 years ago and we still talk about him.