The second the bells ring on the last day of school, the last thing students want to think about is their impending summer reading assignments. Summer days are meant for relaxation, spending much-needed time with friends and family, or even going on extravagant trips. The days are not meant to be spent cooped up in a room with required reading.
There are several problems with summer reading requirements, from the types of books that are chosen to the tests that await students upon their return to school in the fall.
I’m entering my fourth year of required summer reading, and so far I have enjoyed only one book, Of Mice and Men, which was assigned over the summer before my freshman year. It was a quick and easy read, but it also had a meaningful and engaging plot, something most summer reading books are missing, at least in my experience.
The Steinbeck novel was actually only one of two required books during the summer before 9th grade. I went from middle school English classes, where no books were read over the summer, to having two books assigned for freshman year.
Going into my sophomore year, I was told that the summer reading assignment was Life of Pi, which I was excited to read because it is one of my mom’s favorite books. After finishing the novel, however, I stopped trusting my mom’s opinions on books. The first portion of the book was lengthy and tedious, with each chapter focusing on a different animal. I love animals as much as the next person, but an entire chapter about two-toed sloths was a bit much.
Over this past summer, I had to read Herman Melville’s classic tale Moby Dick. For my first AP class, I was determined to successfully read this novel, even starting it the first week of summer. However, the classic tale took me by surprise. Though it is full of interesting characters that should allow for a great plot, when Melville decides to obsess over Captain Ahab and the science of whales, a potentially amazing book gets lost at sea. If I’d lost a limb to a whale, I would have just quit whaling. Instead, Ahab chases the whale around the globe.
The length of Melville’s 19th century novel made it the hardest summer read I’ve ever had. Every vacation, I had the book in my arms. I was reading on the plane, by the pool, on the beach, and even during family gatherings. It consumed my summer, making me dislike the book more. It felt like the upcoming English class was the focus of my summer, not relaxing by the poolside.
But book choices aside, the bigger problem with required summer reading may be that summer is too long for such assignments to be educational.
Students are typically not sure when to start reading their assigned books. Some cram the assignment into the few days before school starts, which is barely doable and hardly productive. Other students just want to get the reading out of the way, starting it at the beginning of summer but finding themselves at a disadvantage three months later when they take the test.
Of course, some students choose not to read the book at all — after all, it’s summer. But once the school year arrives, their neglect either leads to the temptation to cheat or the realization that they made a grave mistake.
The first week of school normally has a test on the book or books assigned over the summer. Along with the test, there is sometimes an essay assignment. However, after the first few weeks of school, the book normally fades from the focus of the curriculum, making students feel like their summers were wasted on a book that was only mentioned once or twice in class.
However, some could argue that cutting summer reading out of the English curriculum would backfire. Without summer reading, how would teachers know their students are willing to read for them? How would they test for reading comprehension in the early days of the school year?
The answer is in giving the students a choice.
Most teenagers resent required summer reading because they usually can’t choose the book. If more teachers gave students a list of grade-approved books and had them pick the ones they wanted to read, students might be more likely to enjoy the experience.
If reading is to be a lifelong habit, then summer reading during our high school years is important. But from what I’ve experienced (and from what I’ve seen and heard from my classmates), the assignments are typically long and tedious and hardly enjoyable. Why not give students a choice? Who knows, maybe they’ll actually grow to enjoy school-assigned reading.
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Editors’ note: All opinions expressed on The Uproar are a reflection solely of the beliefs of the bylined author and not the journalism program at NASH. We continue to welcome school-appropriate comments and guest articles.
