Let’s be honest here: almost everyone hates summer reading. Many of us (teachers don’t read this) can admit that we didn’t even do it. And it’s not like the required summer reading books are boring or poorly written. In fact, they are often amazing and rewarded works of literature. But it doesn’t stop us from dreading reading the books and pushing them off until the last day of summer. The reason why most students hate reading is simply because it is required.
The main purpose of summer reading is so that students can retain the knowledge they learned the previous year during summer break. It is said that students who read over the summer perform better during the next school year. Students who do not read over the summer risk falling behind their classmates due to the loss of knowledge and skills they learned the previous year. However, this mostly applies to children in their early days of education. It is obvious that children still learning to read and write should practice over the summer and during breaks in order to avoid the risk of forgetting what they learned during the school year. For high school, however, there are different circumstances.
In most cases, summer reading is required for students who are taking Advanced Placement (AP) and honors courses in high school. They are required to read specific books over the summer, and once they go back to school, their English class will deeply analyze and go over the novel. This allows students to preview the necessary skills for an AP or honors class while also weeding out any students who are not prepared to take an advanced class. Although summer reading is effective and most likely necessary, it doesn’t change the fact that it is making students believe that they hate reading.
As a child, I loved to read. Fantasy, sci-fi, even non-fiction: I read them all. My love started to decrease as I grew up and was required to read books that I, unfortunately, found utterly dreadful and uninteresting. I started to read less and less and believed that my love for literature was gone. And this is the case for many people as well. The truth is that we still love reading. We love reading books that we find interesting and engaging. Not books that other people choose for us to read.
The school system requiring us to read specific books causes us to read less and forget our love for reading. This doesn’t mean that we should boycott the summer and other required reading. After all, it was us who signed up for advanced classes, so we should take responsibility and do the work. However, assignments with more literary freedom, such as allowing students to choose their own book, should be implemented in order to allow students to remember that once upon a time, we loved to read.
