Summit Learning is an online learning program used by more than 380 schools across the United States. According to the programs official website, it is “a way for students to unlock the power within themselves to live fulfilled and successful lives.”

Farmington High School shocked students when it introduced this new curriculum at the beginning of the school year. Bursts of outrage and retaliation were heard throughout the district, but what many may not have known is that there was also an influx of support for the program and its endorsers.

“I personally love Summit because it acknowledges that students learn in different ways and at different speeds,” Farmington Sophomore, Brinley Bement, said.

Bement is a perfect example of a student who uses Summit the way the Administrators hoped it would be used.

“I think Summit is exactly what students need. This–this is it, I think that students are learning how to take responsibility for their own learning. They’re learning skills that they are going to need in the future, and I think that students are better prepared for college and life after high school more than ever,” Assistant Principal, Merci Rossmango, said.

Rossmango expressed great admiration for Summit. It’s design to make learning blended and personalized for students was one of the main reasons Farmington decided to incorporate it into the brand-new school in the first place. Unfortunately, this new curriculum was not as fully accepted by everyone.

“I don’t really like Summit because I feel like I don’t learn as much as I did in the other classes… the teachers just kind of throw projects at us,” Farmington Junior, Micah Hogge, said.  

Hogge is one of many students that feel as if Summit was just “thrown” at Farmington students without much warning or preperation. This is why the first month of school brought with it words of anger and confusion from students and their parents. However, despite the bad first impression, things are steadily looking up for Summit.

“I think a lot of the negativity that we heard just came from students and parents not understanding. We found, as teachers and administration, that once parents and students understood it more the negativity went way down,” Rossmango said.

Many opinions have been changed once students were able to adjust to Summit and really learn to appreciate its many benefits like Rossmango said.

“At first Summit was really difficult for me… but after a little while I finally figured out how Summit works and now I actually like being able to learn things in different ways and go at my own speed,” Junior, Annecy Hansen, said.

Along with students, teachers were able to better appreciate Summit once they were able to learn more about it and perfect how it fits into their separate subjects.

“My opinion has only strengthened about the need to teach skills in school over content, and how in education we have been doing students a disservice in the old style ways of learning,”  History teacher, LeNina Wimmer, said.

Farmington has seen great success with Summit so far this year and Rossmango and Mrs. Wimmer both expressed their hope that students learn to work with Summit now and in the future because it will continue to be a part of Farmington High for the years to come.