Why Summer School?

When most people hear “summer school” they immediately think of a two- or three-month torture period where they are forced to learn instead of enjoying their summer. If that’s you, stick with me because in this post I’m going to show you why summer school can be beneficial and even enjoyable.  

First, summer school does not have to be something you do just because you failed or didn’t finish a class during the school year. Summer can actually be a great time to get ahead in schoolwork. I’ve even taken full courses over the summer so that I can get some elective credits that I might not have had time for during the school year. During the summer before my freshman year, I took a DIT (digital information technology) course and finished a guitar class. These were both great electives to have on my transcript, but I simply wasn’t going to have time to take them during the school year. And last summer I decided to take three courses: American Sign Language 2, Foundations of Programming, and Finance and Entrepreneurship. I took these courses either because they were part of a series that I wanted to finish or were part of Florida’s graduation requirements. This summer I am not taking a credited course. However, I am getting ahead in my schoolwork. I decided to enroll in AP Biology for my junior year. I haven’t previously had biology, so my teacher advised me to read the honors Biology textbook prior to starting the class. I’m also attempting to receive college credit by studying for and taking a couple of CLEP tests. I just finished the College Algebra exam, which you can read about here. Getting college credit, doing advanced preparation, and getting extra credits are all great ways to spend your summer so that you can round out your transcript and maybe even get credit for some college classes later. 

But I’ve also been in the boat of trying to finish school over the summer. When I was younger, I did Singapore Math. The Singapore Math curriculum takes a very long time to complete and has more weeks and assignments than your average elementary school curriculum. That meant that I often ended up doing math year-round. This is not a bad way to spend your summer either. It’s so much better to spend a little extra time on a subject and understand it than to complete it as quickly as possible and come away having not learned anything. Plus, by doing math year-round, I never had much of an opportunity to forget what I had learned because I kept practicing my skills. That’s not to say it’s good to do every subject all year- it can easily become exhausting. However, math is a subject that often has an extra-long curriculum and can be more beneficial to keep practicing what you have learned.  

Finally, summer should never be a time of just “stopping” the learning process. Learning is life-long and it’s not something you should or ever will stop. Even if you aren’t doing structured classes over the summer, you should be willing to keep learning. There are a variety of short classes from organizations like Udemy that you can take without being graded to find a new skill or develop a passion. My sister is taking a graphic design class this summer that isn’t graded or for credit. However, graphic designing is a wonderful skill for her to have on a resume someday and it is something she is very interested in. You might also choose to teach yourself something by watching videos or reading articles. Summer is also a great time to play sports or just be outside, learning about God’s creation. 

Summer school should not be a term associated with being stuck inside and force-fed information. Learning is a process, and whatever you choose to do over the summer you should have an attitude of loving to learn.