There’s no question that we can upgrade the appeal, attendance rate and effectiveness of summer school for elementary and middle school students. We can do it by pairing schools with community youth organizations to offer full days of hands-on learning including arts and outdoor fun. By breaking down the barriers among all the institutions that work with kids, we can stretch tax dollars and magnify our reach and outcomes.

But what about high school students? They aspire to a different kind of summer learning. They want stimulating, formative jobs. Just 1 in 4 is expected to find work in this brutal employment market.

So here’s an idea: if you work for a company that wants to invest in a better-prepared work force, consider supporting paid apprenticeships that put high school students to work with younger kids as learning leaders in summer schools and camps. It’s a win-win for both age groups.

Corporate leaders say they seek workers who can manage teams, solve problems and adapt to change and challenge. Consider the day of a 16-year-old apprentice art instructor. He guides his second-graders through a group mural-painting project, then journal-writing, then team sports and free play and sculpture-making. Then at day’s end he must manage a parent who comes late to pick up or is upset about paint-smeared clothes. This is a teen who’s preparing to lead.

As for younger kids, we know from research data that they prefer to learn from those who are closest to them in age. We also know that kids learn best when they’re motivated. As a bonus, teenage apprentices who are simultaneously cool and serious about learning make terrific role models.

NY Times