Summer Enrichment Rant
Remember when summer meant vacation?
Posted by Lisa Hendey
in Family
on Monday, June 13, 2011 3:28 PM
Ok folks, prepare for a rant. If you’re in a good, sunny disposition, consider hitting “pause” on this post and stepping outside with a glass of lemonade…
Now that you’ve been warned, I’m going to unload a bit of my current state of maternal frustration. I just returned home from spending four hours with my “baby”, a highschooler entering his Junior year next fall, at our local community college. Our goal was to enroll him in two summer school classes - general education credit which would provide some structure for his summer, be transferable when he enters college, and—yes—enhance his GPA. It’s a situation that is popular with the more serious students at our high school. My older son Eric took several community college classes in high school and really enjoyed them.
Due to budget cuts, the situation for enrolling highschoolers has greatly changed. They were not allowed to pre-enroll, so today we were met with overflowing classrooms, waiting lists in the double digits, and other high school students who were basically all shown the door and told there was no hope of being admitted. No summer school for Adam this year, and honestly he’s not too disappointed. We have other back up plans—camps, volunteer work, and summer reading to fill his plate. He won’t be bored.
But the time today spent talking about this “enrichment” game we play in high school has left me feeling out of sorts. I remember when summer meant not padding your college app, but rather enjoying time with family and friends. I remember taking the city bus to the beach with my friends and going on long family camping trips that lasted for a few weeks. I remember visiting my grandparents in Indiana, babysitting my younger siblings, and having sleepovers with my girlfriends. While I never had a summer job outside of my home, I remember summer meaning dollars earned babysitting and friends who worked at the mall on weekday afternoons for a few hours. Mostly, I remember fun, family and friendship - and I wonder if my son’s summer will be filled with as much of those, or if he’s feeling the same pressure I am to make the most of the next eight weeks to fill in a blank on an application form. If you’ve looked into summer of the opportunities offered to high school students lately, you’ll know that there are a plethora of summer “enrichment” courses at universities around the country, often costing thousands of dollars.
For those of you with high schoolers in your homes, I’m wondering if you’re feeling the same pressure I am to provide “meaningful” enrichment for your teens this summer. Do you feel pressured by academic standards, looming admissions decisions, or peer pressure? Or has your family succeeded in stepping away from the competition that seems to ramp up in the later years of high school? How structured will your teens’ summer experiences be this year? Do you have any great ideas for service projects, clubs, or even online opportunities that don’t cost a month’s salary? Send them over, and hopefully I’ll go out for a walk, say a Rosary, and get in the mood for a relaxed summer soon!
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- so ours work and save for college, then relax on Sundays and in the evenings (playing lots of board games and croquet, hiking, watching movies or reading), and they train for local running races. No school work or camps except for one week at a Catholic Youth conference. Ours have gotten good scholarships at Franciscan U, and have had wonderful experiences there… well worth the effort THEY have had to put into getting there. 
