Give the kids their summer back!
I recall growing up when summers meant adventure. My siblings and friends would wake up early and stay out late. We grew up in the mostly rural south, so we spent our time outdoors riding bikes, exploring in the woods, and essentially having what we thought to be a good time. I miss those days as an adult, and I long for them for my own children. My wife who grew up in East Baltimore had a similar experience, albeit her playground was more of a concrete jungle. Yet, she had her summers of joyful memories as well. Looking back, we still both turned out just fine personally and professionally. If anything, the summertime of rest and recovery restored a sense of agency to our lives.
You may be wondering, but yeah, what does this have to do with education? Well, in my opinion, it seems that summer time used to be the only time where youth really got the chance to practice owning how they would spend their day. We made our own decisions about what we would do and when. Sometimes it lead to wonderful outcomes like discovering a passion for reading and writing, other times it lead to trouble. Either way, it lead to memories and opportunities for growth. [Full disclosure: we both were raised largely by single working moms so perhaps our summertimes of less formal adult supervision was one of necessity, but the point still remains].
This skill of self-directed discovery is key to long term success, particularly if we can help young people harness it for good. Our challenge today is that we live in a society where helicopter parenting or just simply societal pressure to keep our kids on par with everyone else, has limited our ability to see the benefits of a hands off approach to learning. Don’t we realize how over scheduled our children already are during the regular school year? Then on top of that we attempt to control or maximize summertime, and I wonder when does this approach even give our students time to breathe, relax, and recharge?
This conundrum came full circle for me the other evening when my girls and I were sitting down and my oldest daughter shared that she didn’t want to attend the annual 4 week summer day camp that we send her and her siblings to. We choose it because 1).it’s convenient (two minutes from our house and fits with our work schedules), 2)an arts camp (so it checks the boxes of exposure to music, dance, and art), and 3) it’s a camp that emphasizes African American arts (so it checks our own boxes of culturally affirming experiences). We thought we’d chosen well for them (or at least for us!).
It turns out that while they think the camp is ok, they actually wanted to do something else this summer. One daughter said that she wanted to go to a camp where she could build with legos and also where she could spend time writing. That makes sense, she loves to create, both physically with tools like legos, and also she writes a lot of small books. Another daughter said that she wanted to go to either a science camp or somewhere where she can cook. Again, for her that checks her own boxes of wanting to spend time doing the things she loved.
How amazing is it that they could both articulate what they wanted? Fortunately, as parents we’re in position to do something to help. I sat with the girls and researched together some camps to sign up for after the 4 week camp so that they feel some shared ownership over their summer. As parents, we must not forget that while we’re trying to control everything about their lives, it’s still their life. At some point, we must begin ceding control in order for them to practice making good choices. I’m just proud that they knew what they wanted and it was aligned to what matters most. Perhaps next spring as we’re planning out summer activities, we’ll begin by asking them what they’d like to do and then partner with them to enact a plan. Who knows, perhaps a part of the plan might even include some free self-directed play.
SDW3
