A Midsummer’s Day Dream

 ”What I did on my summer vacation….”

I was a superhero battling evil in the forest, a trainer of roly poly bugs for a circus, an arboreal tree dwelling native in the jungle, a teacher trying to teach with too many disruptions.  What were you during your summer vacations?

We all knew it was coming, the dreaded essay  on the first day back in school.  Why did we dread it so.   Everyone I knew then and now looked forward to summer.  Everyone seems to have plans of one sort or another.   Summer is the time filled with dreams and ideas.  Thoughts and possibilities, maybe even a few impossibilities brought on by too much heat and too many Popsickles.  Summer is the period between being one thing, and becoming another. This is true for parents and children alike, as our children grow, we are forced to grow and change with them.  Over the years we came to understand, there, in those few months, we would change, undergo metamorphosis if you will.  We were in elementary school, now we would be in Middle School.  We would leave this and go to that.   But in that time between, we could be, not just our ordinary ourselves, but our extraordinary selves. 

Did we look forward to those few magic months because it was a time when we had control?  We chose how we would change, what we would investigate and learn.  This was the time when we were masters of our own fate, motivated by our own desires and chose our own course.

Adults it would seem are no less immune to the siren call of summer.  Take Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights’ Dream for instance.  The chaos of the usual will break, and we look forward to the relaxation and time to…. well time to do whatever we chose to do in that little extra space in the day or our annual vacation.   Europeans are much luckier than Americans when it comes to this.  Most of those countries mandate 3 weeks of vacation, lucky individuals get even more time off.  Americans, well many of us are lucky if we get one or two weeks of paid time.  This leaves little dream time for our poor souls.  It’s no wonder society is so overstressed.

On occasion, usually around April, the desire to eliminate this wonderful period of childhood shows up in the newspapers or other media.  Many compelling and practical reasons are given and I would agree with the problems which are presented.    I don’t agree that the dissolution of summer vacation is the best answer to the problems.  Often we as a society do something to solve one problem while unintentionally creating another entirely new problem, or make an existing situation worse. 

Let us consider the opponents arguments.  (If you are opposed to summer vacation you may feel free to represent yourself and post a comment) 

• Children lose a great deal of knowledge during these uninstructed months

True.  Children do lose “knowledge” that was little more than rote memorization of facts.  I argue that this wasn’t truly learned/understood in the first place and the brain would eventually shove it off in a back corner anyway.  In order to “learn” knowledge well enough to retain and retrieve it, we must be able to file it away in a context, at least within a framework that makes sense.  If we are not making sense of the information it is useless and the brain will have no easy time in incorporating it into our long term memory.  Knowledge not incorporated into long term memory from our shorter term working memory is lost regardless.   If you wish your child to retain academic skills – spend a little time together working on them!

• Shorter vacation periods (2 weeks) between grading periods in lieu of a long summer break would be easier on families and more beneficial to the long term learning experience

I  have two points to make here:

1. While it is true that it may be easier on the families- translate parents- it would not benefit the long term learning of the child.  Traditional school methods are not for every child. (Some may disagree vehemently on this point, but unless you are a teacher, frankly, you’re not qualified to disagree, but you’re welcome to anyway)  Traditional schools are meant to serve the average need, there isn’t any such thing as the “average child”.  There are those that fall more within the ability to learn by this average rate and average material, but many children do not thrive within these restrictions.   These children excel within the creative time they spend by themselves or in a creative environment exploring the world, gaining or even reinforcing the knowledge that the classroom teacher was presenting day after day.  
2. Any child given enough time and too little stimulation will resort to finding a way to occupy themselves.  This should be a law of biological physics. 

“A buildup of potential energy within a biological system of an organism will seek an outlet.  Potential  energy will be converted to kinetic energy and will be released in an active manner rivaling that of a supernova, and have surprisingly unpredictable consequences.  Said consequences will result in adaptability and increase coping skills within the organism. thereby leading to the success of the organism within their environment in the long term.” 

There’s nothing quite like that second month, sometime in late July, when the novelty has worn off and the individual is ready to experiment with new activities, maybe even to pick up a book on their own. This is when the magic can begin.  This is when the child will do their best learning- they will subconsciously learn How They Learn  through manipulating their own brain and employ the best method for them.  Whether it be through logical forethought,  hands on trial and error, or through study of instruction then employing the material taught.  This is the learning that will last them a lifetime and benefit them throughout their lifetime.

• Families face undue financial burden in having to enroll their children in expensive summer programs

 This is going to sound harsh.  Families- translate parents- face an undue financial burden because they chose to have children.  It is not a right to have society make your life easier.  It is not a right to have your child taken care of by others to make your life easier, certainly not cheaper.  Some single parents and even two parent families do face terrible hardship for whatever reason and this is a shame.  However there are many organizations that do activities for little or no cost and provide fantastic learning opportunities for children.  If you make it a priority to research these programs you will find ones to meet your needs.  Your local library is a great place to start.  They often host programs as well as have information on others in your area.  While you’re there you might even find something to interest you!  Remember, now that it’s summer, you have a little extra time in the schedule, maybe some vacation time.  The best way to insure your child learns the value of knowledge and receives a quality education is for you the parent to model the behavior by doing.  Take time to increase your knowledge, show reading is important by reading a book yourself as well as one with your child.    

These seem to be the best arguments that society has thus far.  I don’t think they hold up under scrutiny.  Another point that I feel the need to make here is that of Transitioning.  Educators know the term- it’s meaning is simple- how to get a child/ren to move from one activity to another.  “Ok class we have ten minutes left and we will line up for ….”   Teachers use this technique because it’s needed, not just to encourage everyone to clean up.  Transition is used to signal change, inform what the change will be so it is both expectable and predictable, and the individuals are given time to make adjustments to their arousal level.  Think of it this way- if you were sitting at a desk and suddenly the boss tells you to jump up and start running a marathon- are you at a proper arousal level?   (Maybe this is a bad example; it may happen to you so frequently that you’ve become accustomed to it, if so realize you are only capable of doing so after much practice at transitioning, but you are not operating at an optimum level.) 

Transition takes time; how much time depends on the individual’s receptive language skill, cognitive skills, etc.  Suffice to say different people have differing amounts of time needed to move from one situation to another.  When properly transitioned to the next situation, learning in this case, the individual will be better focused resulting in increased likelihood of  success.    Summer is a needed, beneficial transition.  If we eliminate this, or fail to nurture it, we do so at risk.  What do we risk?  Creativity.  Innovation.  Adaptibility.  For it is when we have time to dream and imagine that our best work is done.