Opinion: Shelving the summer school stigma
Freshman Aaron Boehmer reflects on the stigma that is often attached to summer school.
Nevertheless, there is still a stigma today, especially when first mentioning to someone that you are taking a summer school class, to which they respond, “Could you not pass the class during the school year?” Summer school’s true purpose is not to punish the students who are attending, but to provide opportunities and potentially lighten your workload during the school year.
When I was younger, the notion of summer school was always one involving punishment and discipline for not doing well during the regular school year. Now, this is not the education system’s fault, as such an idea has been ingrained in the brains of my peers through television shows and movies that portrayed summer school as something close to the extremity of a purgatory.
Though not ideal, summer school allows for recovery and advancement as opposed to a penalty for not passing a course. Furthermore, it has become more convenient as Frisco ISD offers online summer school courses that are self-paced and taken from the comfort of one’s own home.
Personally, I see no problem in summer school and I am even taking Professional Communications over the summer to complete the required speech credit.
Nevertheless, there is still a stigma today, especially when first mentioning to someone that you are taking a summer school class, to which they respond, “Could you not pass the class during the school year?”
This is further reason why the stigma must end as it discourages those who want to get ahead in their high school studies, causing them to fear of what others might think or say.
As a way to deviate from the negative thoughts paired with summer school, I believe there should be more courses offered that motivate students to enroll. It is already known that every core class is available as a remediation, but not many students know of the electives accessible for advancement besides Professional Communications.
The advancement courses and summer school in general should be further advertised and promoted by the administration instead of almost hidden in an online handbook not everyone will look into.
In addition, I ask Hollywood to not show summer school as such a horrible thing because when it is perceived as such, the children watching think that is a true depiction of what taking a class or two in the summer is really like.
Summer school’s true purpose is not to punish the students who are attending, but to provide opportunities and potentially lighten your workload during the school year.
Aaron Boehmer is a senior and in his fourth year of working on the Wingspan staff, third as an editor. Aaron is hoping to study journalism or political...