Superintendent Vitti thinks kindergartners should go to summer school.

There is a war going on. On one side you have teachers, education experts and parents who are saying our kids need to play and that nonstop academics and testing can be harmful. On the other side you have politicians who say we must constantly drill and asses to see where kids are.

Superintendent Viti says kids from our most vulnerable families and schools should go to summer school and I have to say I have long advocated for more summer school. The sad truth is a lot of our kids need more time to learn stuff and less time in between school years so they don’t lose what they did.

I think however our education philosophies differ from that point on.  

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2015-07-09/story/summer-school-kindergartners-duval-superintendent-says-its-good-idea

School has become drudgery for kids and that has crept both into the younger grades and into the neighborhoods where the kids can least afford to hate school.

I believe we must make school fun again and that more than continuously assessing and drilling will have more success. Think about it, when do you do a better job, when you are doing something you enjoy to do or when you are forced and hate your task. It’s always the former.

Kinds in the elementary grades should have a rounded curriculum which includes both play and the arts and that should be daily, not when a class comes up into a school rotation or as a Friday afternoon treat. BUT DAILY!!!

Then in the later grades, kids should have electives of their choice preferably more than one, classes they enjoy and can look forward to.

I have no problem with kindergartners going to summer school if it is done right with lots of play and art activities sandwiched around learning blocks, unfortunately I don’t believe that is what the super has in mind.

We can’t continue to make school such drudgery for kids and then scratch our heads when they do poorly or fail.