What Separates GREAT Students From Good Students

In the educational system in the United States, we might have a good, solid six months of actual educational advancement for each 9-10 month academic year. This is because of summer vacations.

About the middle of April (around Tax Day), students get "Spring Fever" and begin to shut down academically. It takes about six weeks to decline into total academic brain death around Memorial Day. During this time the majority of students coast through the last six weeks, doing the minimum. Come August or September, teachers have to reteach most of the last year because the academic brains have been unplugged for the summer months and have been operating on "dim" for the month and a half before that. So with an extensive review, the school system manages to get the academic brain back to its April 15th state in about six weeks - around Columbus Day. For the six months between Tax Day and Columbus Day, the light is on, but no one is home... academically.

As I look through the Valedictorian and Salutatorian lists in the newspaper, I notice a significant number of children from what I assume to be first generation parents who have come to the US. Many of these people bring with them a value for education and a dedication to work that our population has seemed to have lost, not just in education. As I observe many families new to the US send their children to special summer programs and have their children fully engaged in advancing their education. This shows up in the classroom, on tests, and ultimately on college admissions and scholarships.