True Confession: My Kid Has to Go to Summer School

My kid is going to summer school.

He failed his end of year math test. Sure, kids fail their end of year exams, but what makes this worse, is that his father is a math teacher. Good gravy, it was a dark day at our house when those end of year scores came home.

The kid had struggled all year with some aspects of his curricula, and we’d diligently tried to get him to buckle down and work, but it didn’t click this year. He had social issues, minor problems with other kids and a general goof-off attitude, that took a toll on his work. When other kids were working in class, he was out of his seat. His teachers did their best, and it felt like we were in constant communication, but there’s only so much you can do before a student just has to accept personal responsibility (like applying yourself on tests, putting their name on assignments, and also turning them in.)

I’m not sure what to make of this; I’m trying to be empathetic and tough-beans about it all. The truth is that I went to summer school, too–but because I wanted to (getting requirements out of the way so I could take more electives during the year.) I would rather have suffered painful injuries than gotten poor grades. He’s been working on worksheets and workbook exercises since school got out; it’s been like pulling mule teeth to get him to do the work.

I’m hoping that summer school will give him the extra time he needs to get down concepts he hasn’t learned. He’ll have to retake his end of year test to make sure that he can advance to the next grade, and has a month to make that happen.

So here’s my summer school confession: my kid has to go to summer school and I hope he passes.

Have you had to guide a child through summer school?