Originally Posted by ashley
Originally Posted by Bostonian
Originally Posted by Val
Around here, teenagers in high-pressure school districts spend much of their summer vacations studying in the local libraries and elsewhere. They aren't there for the love of AP Calc; they're there because they're being compliant, and most of them look like they'd rather be somewhere else.
Don't most adults spend their working lives "complying" in order to get paid? Are the teens spending several hours a day studying worse off than those who are working full time at entry level jobs in the summer? There should still be time for sports and socializing.
I picked up my son from elementary sports camp yesterday - run by teen "camp counselors" and I am in a high pressure school district of the bay area - none of these teens running the camps in the full sun (close to 100 degrees) all day long seemed much happy about their jobs either - looked like they would rather be somewhere else. I think that if their parents sent them to the library or Starbucks to study AP calculus, they would have been more comfortable and happier.
Where I live (not in Bay Area) many of the kids that take the hardest classes at H.S. spend the summer taking intense SAT prep all summer long. Elite - 5 hrs a day plus homework for 8 weeks and this is only for those who already score in the top 5% on a pretest. Many of these students want to be there since it's what their friends are doing and there is a high social status for getting in.

Or "pretake" the classes they will be taking next year. 6-8 week courses preparing them for the AP & honors classes they will take the next year. I assume this happens in many area's of Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, etc as well. Spending the summer in the library studying AP Calc would be relaxing.

Honestly if I had to work at a summer camp in the 100% heat I would probably not be happy either.