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June, July and August are vacation months for most American school children. But some young students pay a high price for that long summer break. They may forget much of what they learned over the past year by the time they start the next grade. This problem is often called the summer learning gap. A growing effort across the country aims to deal with it by offering more interesting summer school programs. Some students already attend summer school, but often because they received poor grades during the regular school year. STUDENT: "People need food, clothes, and other goods …" On a recent day, students read out loud about communities in a third-grade social studies class at Bushman Elementary in Dallas, Texas. But the nine- and ten-year-olds were also studying art. Visual arts instructor Ron Oliver works to combine the two subjects. RON OLIVER: "The kids that never get it -- like the thirty percent that always struggle on testing -- they thrive in this kind of atmosphere. Sometimes they just learn differently." In addition to reading, the students expressed themselves in picture form by drawing community scenes. BOY: "When I was drawing, I was expressing my feelings and showing what was happening." GIRL: "You only use the pictures, and you use it to tell the people, the pictures telling the words for you. You don’t need words." Their teacher Gloria Pegram has taught elementary school for fifteen years. She says art helps with memory. | 
