Summer and Education

What does summer have that the rest of the year is missing? Right, summer in America is a “vacation time”. Families go away, kids go to camp, people just stop what they do during the rest of the year, and for those two to three months, June, July and August, people just do different things. Now, while we all know that vacations are important and getting away from the “every day routine” is important, that doesn’t mean that our minds must stagnate and do nothing that has anything to do with education. So, what I am suggesting is abhorrent, beyond the imagination, “real way out” but, what we should consider is READING! Reading a book can be fun, especially if it is a book that we enjoy and without a deadline. Reading can put us in different places, whether real or imaginary. We might want to read the books scheduled for the next school year or read just for reading’s sake.

One of the things that I enjoyed doing when I was a kid was reading comic books. They were fun, exciting and put me in a different quadrant. Nowadays, those same comic books that cost ten cents, in good condition, cost hundreds of dollars!. In fact, I recently met someone who enjoyed comic books so much, and his mother didn’t throw them out, that he now has a career selling and trading vintage comic books.

How about writing? We can write a story, write in our diary, write a synopsis of the book we are reading or write just to write. In the past, I might have suggested summer school, in which we could have taken courses earlier and could have graduated sooner, but unfortunately, in Florida that is no longer an option.

The summer months are important since they give us time to think, recollect and gather our resources together for what comes for the next school year. Let’s not waste the time; let’s do things that have meaning. Remember the commercial that said “a brain is a terrible thing to waste”, so let’s give summer some meaning. Let’s do things that motivate us, enhance us, and will teach us. Good luck and have a good summer!

Howard Chusid, M.S. Ed. is an experienced Career Counselor. He has the training and experience to give Career Assessments such as the Strong, MBTI, SDS and others. He is also a Registered Mental Health Intern and a member of the National Career Development Association, American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association. Visit the website at www.professionalcareerstrategiesfl.com