We were under the conception that summer school was for students who failed courses during the regular school year to give them a chance to redeem their academic ability. Oops, summer school? Oh no, not it Windham. Folks, it’s Windham Summer Academy. This must mean that Summer Academy is so much more than educational. Could it also be an experience to reward a child just for getting out of bed in the morning?
What are these children learning? On the third day the “students” were rewarded by boarding school vans to go swimming. Calls to the staff revealed that the Summer Academy was in session four days a week. One day out of the four is an adventure day and included swimming, kayaking, horseback riding and yes, sailing. And we don’t mean the SAIL program, we mean they went sailing. Overnighters, too.
Both of us are all for education so what academic studies did these children have this summer? Please show us how they excelled in academic excellence this summer. No matter where the funds came from for this program, grants, etc., it is still our federal tax dollars that were used. Could it be plain to see that the priority of the Windham School Academy is not the education of children but it’s to push them along and then out the door, leaving them with a restricted future and eventually a possible burden on society?
For the students who needed summer school there were three options: Attending another school, tutoring and the most intriguing, correspondence courses. So what genius in the School Department arrived at these solutions? Let’s save Windhamites lots of tax dollars. Turn the schools into a day care center (which some citizens already claim has happened) and let the students take correspondence courses.
To sail or not to sail. Who went sailing, the students or the staff? Shouldn’t the goal of education by to prepare students for a productive life?
Lane Hiltunen and Tom Gleason
Windham
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