Do Not Go Dumbly into This Good Summer

Stock up on IAF Smarts First: June 17 Foreign Policy Mashup

By Lynda Wheatley | June 12, 2021

Summer brain drain — aka the “summer slide” — is the theory that students stop learning and sometimes even forget much of what they learned during the school year, and — get this — research shows it’s a real deal.

Before you start worrying about the hard-earned smarts your third-grader is going to lose after breaking free this week, consider your own cranium for a minute: When was the last time you fed it something more nutritional than a 30-minute series of three-minute stories on network news (or, OK, TMZ)?

For those looking to fire up their synapses before summer turns their adult brains even mushier, consider joining the International Affairs Forum’s last hurrah of the season: Its annual “Foreign Policy Mashup,” a panel discussion will dive deep into issues that’ll keep you thinking until at least August: civics in an age of partisanship, President Biden's evolving foreign policy, global COVID-19, the international reverberations of the Black Lives Matter Movement, climate policy, and more. 

Bill Clifford, president and CEO of the World Affairs Councils of America, will lead the discussion; you, engaged global citizen, are welcome to draft advance questions for what is always a vigorous Q&A session. Plan to join the think tank at 5pm June 17 via Zoom. Register first by searching “IAF” at www.nmc.edu. $10 suggested donation.