As many of you know by now, I am the Director of Summer Programs for a non-profit corporation in the Philadelphia suburbs. I am charged with supervising three very different summer programs. These program include a "traditional" academic summer program, an Extended School Year (ESY) program for youth with special needs who qualify based on their regression/recoupment data; and an experiential summer learning program that offers children of all abilities innovative educational experiences that build self-confidence, strengthen relationships and expose them to "real world" learning (i.e. sailing in Mystic (CT), building canoes, hiking the Appalachian Trail, building social skills through drama/improv, exploring robotics, stepping back in time in a history immersion camp, etc).

The most recent issue of Time Magazine featured an article called "The Case Against Summer Vacation". While I thought the article only scratched the surface of a much bigger issue related to our public education system, I think it offered some compelling evidence supporting the need for quality summer programming for many of the nation's youth.

Should we steer away from summer vacation? Are our nation's youth burning out in the current education system? What kinds of summer programming do you think our nation's kids need?

What say you, TBA readers?