Who Says School’s Out?
By KATHLEEN CARROLL, STAFF WRITER
An extended school year long popular in Europe and Asia has become the reality for 38 percent of American teenagers, new federal statistics show.
Many are not remedial students spending hot July afternoons in their regular schools. Instead, they are top achievers studying at universities, arts institutes and private schools, in enrichment programs that have become the norm for the affluent and ambitious.
Summer vacation, alas, has morphed into summer semester.
Take Megan McCreadie of Cresskill. The 16-year-old just finished studying literature and film during a summer program at Brown University in Providence, R.I. That came after two summers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she studied international politics and art history.
Why try out college while still in high school? To prepare for college, of course.
And "you actually learn about stuff that interests you," said Megan, who relished classes that focused on group discussion and analysis.
A Cresskill classmate, 16-year-old Emily Olcott, is testing her mettle at a prestigious musical theater program at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in northern Michigan this summer. Emily, an honors student who played the lead in her school play last year, is following a grueling but inspiring schedule, with classes throughout the day and frequent rehearsals and concerts.
"These programs are incredibly important," said her mother, Sarah Carter, a professional cellist. "In the arts, you’ve got to graduate high school at a high level or you’re not going to make it. … This is a way to start weeding out who is serious."
Such programs are increasingly considered indispensable training for life after high school. Summer study among teenagers has tripled in the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Academic summer programs have increased by 78 percent in the past nine years, according to the American Camp Association.
Meanwhile, less than half of teenagers are working: In June, 48 percent of those ages 16 to 19 were employed or looking for work, compared with 60 percent in June 2000.
All that enrichment doesn’t come cheap. College summer sessions may cost $2,000 or more, though scholarships can help defray some costs. For example, Emily’s six-week Interlochen program cost about $6,000. She managed with a partial scholarship and contributions from her extended family.
In many cases, one high-octane summer program isn’t enough. Parents focused on well-rounded children let them indulge multiple passions poetry, rock-climbing, physics, lacrosse.
Five is the magic number this summer for Gregory Resnick of Ridgewood. First, it’s music camp at Colgate University in upstate New York, then a three-week theater program at Ridgewood High School. Between baseball practices, the 14-year-old will work on activities four and five: a sports broadcasting camp at Montclair State University and his high school’s band camp. His sister Amanda, 18, is keeping things simple, with a camp counselor job and a stint at band camp.
The Resnicks do take a break: a two-week beach vacation, when Gregory gets a brief taste of the working life by helping out in a friend’s store, said his mother, Elizabeth Resnick.
The breakneck pace is a far cry from her lazy girlhood summers spent riding her bicycle to nowhere in particular.
"It’s a totally different life," she said. "Sometimes I do feel there’s a little too much structure and competition particularly during the school year. But during summer, these are the activities they want to do. This is just getting him that much more knowledge."
After spending four summers at the private Delbarton School in Morristown, 15-year-old Neil Ekblom is about to make the switch from student to teacher. A math whiz he’s an honors student and two years ahead of his peers at Ridgewood High Neil is planning a weeklong math camp for his sister Margaret, 12, and her friends.
But that will have to wait until August Margaret is at an intensive ballet program this month. Meanwhile, Neil’s keeping busy with a PSAT preparation class.
The Topfer family of Franklin Lakes also have sent their children to private school in the summer, after Jacob, 14, and Sydney, 12, won admission to the competitive Young Writers Workshop at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut.
Both children were at other enrichment programs when a reporter called last week Jacob at basketball camp, Sydney at cheerleading camp but their mother was available for an interview.
"I would call them [at Choate] and say, ‘Is your lemonade laced with something?’ " joked Geri Topfer. "They were so excited, and they couldn’t talk because they had to go back to reading, back to writing. There’s a lot of freedom and mandatory study hall and hours of homework. Yet these kids had an absolute blast."
***
E-mail: carroll@northjersey.com
***
(c) 2007 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.