Indianapolis School Pupils like Summer Education

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15118, 29 October 1949, Page 6

Indianapolis School Pupils like Summer Education

Officially, Indianapolis has a nine-month school year, but unofficially it has school running 12 months" a year. And the children like it. Progressive educators in the Hoosier State Capital long have believed that most school children waste their summer vacations. They point out that the nine-month school' year originated to make children available in the summer to work with the crops. Mechanised farms have given rural vouth more idle time and city children do not have farm chores and most of them cannot find temporary employment. Against this background Indianapolis over a 10 year past period has turned its school to keeping young people busy in summertime. The Lighter Side The city government has coordinated " its park and recreation programme with the summer school programme, knowing ■ that idleness finds mischief for small hands to do. The combined programme of (lie school city and the city government to keep young people busy has given Indianapolis a very low juvenile dcliquency record.

popular of the summer school programmes attracting CiOOO pupils from in Indianapolis is the outgrowth of routine summer classes for youngsters who had failed in one or more subjects and for I hose who were ambitious to get half-a-ycar ahead. While these classes are continued there has been-an enormous expansion of the “lighter side” of education.

Music lias proven one of the most popular of tlie summer pupils from both grade and high school ages. Those children under the summer programme arc given music aptitude tests and then turned loose in the Held they enjoy most.

The pupils write operettas, build the stage, design the costumes and produce them in the city parks. In composing music, playing in the orchestra, chorus, and other fields of music, much youthful genius has been uncovered. As a I real, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra gives free concerts tor the children. Next most popular type of summer das is the 4-PI Club rural youth programme adapted to city needs. The girls are deeply interested in sewing, housekeeping and cooking. A surprisingly large number of boys show up to learn how to cook. To ensure that they do it well, they must eat what thev cook in class. Popular Course The third most popular programme is horticulture. Growing of flowers and gardens is learned, from books and from practice. One Indianapolis school has cultivated nine acres of gardens for the past 10 years. Parents are interested in their children's gardens. The growing season is topped off with final exams in the form of a festival and exhibit, Handicrafts prove popular in summer months. In all these courses regular teachers from the Indianapoiis school staff are employed in the summer months. The teachers arrange among themselves for a month's vacation. No tuition is charged the children for summer schooling as City School Superintendent Virgil Stinebaugh looks upon it as a public function of the schools. The city, for a nominal sum, "leases" the school playgrounds for the summer, guaranteeing to make any repairs of damage. The park board employees staff the school yards and direct play. The city has an extensive layout of "youth canteens' to keep young people busy in the evenings before curfew sounds at 1.1 p.m. More and more towns and cities out in the state are following the Indianapolis plan of schools for children in summertime.