Penn Live – Josette Plank
“School’s out and summer is here! Let the brain drain begin! Back when I was a kid (my five favorite words for annoying my children), no one talked about “summer brain drain,” also known as “summer learning loss.” When I was a kid, our teachers didn’t hand out math packets to complete over the summer. We didn’t have summer reading lists filled with depressing works of literature about war and famine and dead family pets. No, our teachers accepted that, at the last bell, our student brains would turn to mush. Instead of fighting brain drain, our teachers actually helped ease us into our summer zombie state. During the last week of school, every day was a class party with grape juice and cupcakes. We watched filmstrips and movies, and recess lasted for three hours. On the final day, we cleaned out our desks with buckets of soap and water, said good-bye and fled education.”(more)