According to Dr. Annie Georges, the idea of students' summer brain drain can be misleading.  "It's not that they forget everything. It's that the rate of the gain is slower," said Georges, a senior research scientist for the National Center for Children and Families.  She also commented that research on summer learning typically focuses on youger children rather than older students who are studying more complex material. "The more difficult a subject, the more difficult it is to retain," she said.

Dr. Georges added that non-academic activities can provide valuable experiences for students during summer break.  "It's not a curriculum, and it's not practice with academic skills, but provides social rather than academic gains."

The article, entitled "A Season for Memory to Slip and Slide?" appeared in the May 30 edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Published Tuesday, May. 31, 2005