Summer Vacation is almost over, sigh

My daughter's summer vacation is almost over, and unfortunately she still has a bit of summer HW to get finished. Are schools ruining summer by giving out summer HW, or is it what is needed to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive world.

My daughter's cello teacher was talking about how much more advanced his students are, then when he was a student. He had a high school student at a recital play a piece he did for his Master's dissertation. I was surprised at how some students dressed up for the recital, and others just came in jeans. My daughter dressed up.

My daughter's orchestra does not have a dress code yet, and it's interested to see what everyone wears. It was the first year of the new orchestra teacher and I understand this year is going to be a bit stricter run. I will be interested to see if they get the uniforms this year and what they look like. My daughter's choir got better looking girl's dresses that covered the top in a nice way and were age appropriate.