An Alternate Summer Coaching Program

Summer coaching or holiday coaching lesson as we normally call it is the period between the end on one session and the beginning of another. It is usually a 6-week program where students come in to school to learn mostly – the introductory part of the next session’s course work – and to play a lot of football after classes, I guess.

I have spoken so much about how faulty the school system is and without doubt, the summer coaching scheme is also a major tool used by the system to keep us small.

I wouldn’t want to waste ample time reeling out its shortcomings; so, I will go straight to providing an alternate summer coaching scheme (it might be difficult to explain why my idea is a better solution without touching on the shortcomings of the current scheme)

Every child wants to explore. They want to think. They want to make good decisions. Every child is naturally curious, creative and inquisitive. Why are we not prioritizing all these?

What is the need for the constant brainwashing that the school system has been trained to do? Instead of a system that will take into account the uniqueness of the kids and give them an upside.

What if a curriculum is designed to foster critical thinking, decision making, emotional intelligence, team work, leadership, writing? Instead of going to summer lesson to learn what will be learnt the next term, let’s put these kids in a different environment where they are posed with real life case studies and they are asked what they would do if they were to be in that situation? Dig further on why they would do what they said they will do

Here, there will be no custodian of knowledge. All the knowledge the kids need is in them. The role of the teacher will be to make them dig deep to bring this knowledge out.

Pair them into groups and let’s have each group argue their ideas against the other. Let them have games like football manager or chess. Let each group take a team and let them make decisions and see how it impacts them. The role of the teacher is to ask why? Why are you making this move? Why are you choosing this formation? Why this player over this?

Make sure the kids are responsible for their actions. If they lose, do not patronize them. Let them know they have lost. Don’t lie to them that everyone is a winner. Let them feel what it means to lose and let it fuel them to make better decisions next time.

Then let the kids own blogs and let them write everyday about anything they so wish to. No length restrictions, no topics, no rules whatsoever. Just the kids in control. Then let them share their links among themselves to receive feedback.

Let them make decisions on the spot. Catch them unawares and let them be responsible for the outcome.

What a summer school that would be.

We need to bring this to life. I am willing to draft the curriculum and be an active part of it. If we start with one center and achieve results, I promise, summer schools in the country will cease to exist and we will have kids who are ready to make the future a better place.

What do you think?