School’s Out, School’s Out, Teacher Let the…
By Kerri Cokeley et al.
Photo by Flickr user Phil Dowsing / eco-photography - click for link!
School’s out – will the summer be a learning time for young students?
The summer months can be a time of wonderful opportunities for kids – recreation, creative expression, vacation, and enrichment. But this is not the case for all young people. In fact, youth in our community without access to quality summer programs are unable to learn and grow during these months.
All young people experience a loss of skills when not engaged in learning over the summer just as an athlete or musician would without practice. However, while middle and upper-middle class families can expose their kids to camps, museum, swimming lessons, vacations and other hands-on learning opportunities, summer is a time when class differences tend to separate those who have from those who have not. Young people in high-poverty communities face greater risks of experiencing knowledge and skill losses.
Some of our community’s students will fall behind.
In fact, children from low-income families fall behind an average of 2-3 months in reading while their middle-income peers tend to make slight gains. By 5th grade, some of these children of low-income families will have a 2 to 3 year academic delay.
Metro United Way is helping make a difference for our community’s students this summer. Here’s one example of how!
St. Michael School and Community Childhood Center has been a summer resource for children in Charlestown, Indiana for 20+ years. The goal of their 2010 Summer Camp is to provide children with opportunities to gain knowledge through rich experiences using best practices that bridge the learning gap. Kids’ creativity and imagination are developed in an environment that promotes discovery, and all children are expected to achieve their personal best.
Children who participate in this camp get a variety of services and opportunities:
- Assistance in health and nutrition
- Physical activity
- Academic support in reading, math, writing, science and social studies
- Field trip experiences
- Guest speakers
- Opportunities for enrichment and choice
- Small group tutoring
- Art and music activities
- Incentives for making good character choices
Unfortunately, a budget shortfall may mean that children who need this opportunity the most, but whose families cannot afford it will have to do without. So, the Metro United Way Clark County Community Solutions Committee is investing $5,000 for a matching grant to help address the budget shortfall in hopes that no child will have to be turned away from this summer camp experience regardless of his or her family’s ability to pay.
This investment of matching funds will allow many students in the Charlestown community to become engaged in this summer-long program that will provide them with access to high-quality educational and developmental opportunities.
Want to be a part of it?
If you are an educator and would like to volunteer time for this effort, or if you work for a business that may be willing to serve as a location for a field trip, or if you have an skill set that would be an interesting topic for a guest appearance, let us know that you would like to get involved too!
