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So what? What's it to you? Are you the parent or teacher of children who won't read unless required?
If a child won't read then the onus is on the child and no one else. We can give children books, we cannot force them to read them... we just can't. Sure, we give them required reading: DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR.
We are talking SUMMER BREAK here and children should not be given any homework from school during this time. This is a time for playing. Some people seem to forget that during unsupervised play children learn many valuable lessons. Let children be children; let them learn in the way that comes most natural to them. PLAY.
Involved parents will see to it that their child/children have lots of opportunities to read and review what they learned during the last school years.
No amount of required reading is going to make readers out of children who hate reading and/or have parents that are totally indifferent to schooling.
Something very important that gets skirted around in these debates is the very real fact that different learners have different needs.
Some children DO benefit greatly from unstructured play time. Some require more structure to glean benefit from experiences. And structured time and play time can, in fact, coexist. It's not one-size-fits-all. "Summer is a time for nothing but unstructured play, because that's what is best for kids" isn't a universal truism. Far from it. Many (most, even) children do much better with a solid mix of structured time and free time. And, of course, the idea that if reading is emphasized as a viable activity, even (gasp!) when school is not in session doesn't really mean that there is NO FREE TIME FOR UNSTRUCTURED PLAY, WHATSOEVER, either. Unless you're the slowest reader in the world (in which case, you SHOULD be turning extra attention to reading methods), reading a handful of books over several months that are not encumbered by a school schedule really should NOT be sucking up all your unstructured playtime.
Allow to me to continue to repeat ad nauseum...I do not believe it's teacher's jobs to require that specific reading be done over the summer...but neither do I believe that it is the odious abomination and scourge upon glorious hours of free time that some, it seems, do.
Something very important that gets skirted around in these debates is the very real fact that different learners have different needs.
Some children DO benefit greatly from unstructured play time. Some require more structure to glean benefit from experiences. And structured time and play time can, in fact, coexist. It's not one-size-fits-all. "Summer is a time for nothing but unstructured play, because that's what is best for kids" isn't a universal truism. Far from it. Many (most, even) children do much better with a solid mix of structured time and free time. And, of course, the idea that if reading is emphasized as a viable activity, even (gasp!) when school is not in session doesn't really mean that there is NO FREE TIME FOR UNSTRUCTURED PLAY, WHATSOEVER, either. Unless you're the slowest reader in the world (in which case, you SHOULD be turning extra attention to reading methods), reading a handful of books over several months that are not encumbered by a school schedule really should NOT be sucking up all your unstructured playtime.
Allow to me to continue to repeat ad nauseum...I do not believe it's teacher's jobs to require that specific reading be done over the summer...but neither do I believe that it is the odious abomination and scourge upon glorious hours of free time that some, it seems, do.
I don't think I have read anything here that says that summer has to be completely unstructured. My oldest son is heading off to a structured music camp. My middle son is heading off to take a class at an academic camp for three weeks. Those are not unstructured activities. They will both do plenty of reading.
However, they will still have to find time to read whatever the required books are for school. It's just an infringement on their summer, especially for my youngest who will have to read Little Women. I can't imagine a 13 year old boy liking Little Women. He LOVES to read and is never without a book. I don't see what is so important about that one book that he MUST read it.
You may not be aware of it, but No Child Left Behind puts the onus on the schools, the administrators, and yes, even the teachers to reach adequate yearly progress goals.
In schools like mine, most children will not read during the summer, even with a mandatory summer reading assignment. You may be an involved parent, but there are millions of children whose parents are as uninvolved as they can be legally and still keep their children.
No amount of assigned reading will make all students readers, but if that is the only way that at-risk students will interact with text over the summer, then I think it's a good idea. Each school district should have the autonomy to make the decisions that are the best for the students in their district. For some of them, that will include summer reading. For others, it will be having a longer summer break so that the children can travel with their parents to their summer homes around the world.
I am very well aware of No Child Left Behind and I think it is the dumbest thing ever thought of.
I personally know an air-head who graduated from 8th grade even though she should never have left grade school. She dropped out of school at 16 and was pregnant at 17. She was never exposed to books at home - NEVER. She flat out told me she refused to learn because reading was boring. That is NOT the schools fault, the fault lies with the air-headed child.
I agree that not all parents are as involved as I was. I said that. Just because you give a child a required reading list does not mean the child or the parent will even care.
Again, if schools want to have control over children all year long then schools should be in session all year long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkb0714
Based on that reasoning we shouldn't have homework since that is outside the bounds of the school day.
And FYI, re the bolded, many studies have shown that summer reading is most important for those at risk groups like the ones whose parents maybe non-supportive.
I said that schools should have no authority to dictate family life over the summer. Homework DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR is fine (as long as it is not overly obsessive) and I have never said anything different.
Yes, summer reading is most important. I could not agree any more than I already have. I am against requiring children (through high school) to do ANY KIND of homework over the summer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
Something very important that gets skirted around in these debates is the very real fact that different learners have different needs.
Some children DO benefit greatly from unstructured play time. Some require more structure to glean benefit from experiences. And structured time and play time can, in fact, coexist. It's not one-size-fits-all. "Summer is a time for nothing but unstructured play, because that's what is best for kids" isn't a universal truism. Far from it. Many (most, even) children do much better with a solid mix of structured time and free time. And, of course, the idea that if reading is emphasized as a viable activity, even (gasp!) when school is not in session doesn't really mean that there is NO FREE TIME FOR UNSTRUCTURED PLAY, WHATSOEVER, either. Unless you're the slowest reader in the world (in which case, you SHOULD be turning extra attention to reading methods), reading a handful of books over several months that are not encumbered by a school schedule really should NOT be sucking up all your unstructured playtime.
Allow to me to continue to repeat ad nauseum...I do not believe it's teacher's jobs to require that specific reading be done over the summer...but neither do I believe that it is the odious abomination and scourge upon glorious hours of free time that some, it seems, do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Momma_bear
I don't think I have read anything here that says that summer has to be completely unstructured. My oldest son is heading off to a structured music camp. My middle son is heading off to take a class at an academic camp for three weeks. Those are not unstructured activities. They will both do plenty of reading.
However, they will still have to find time to read whatever the required books are for school. It's just an infringement on their summer, especially for my youngest who will have to read Little Women. I can't imagine a 13 year old boy liking Little Women. He LOVES to read and is never without a book. I don't see what is so important about that one book that he MUST read it.
Egads! That is why I say the list of classics aren't for everyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
The post of Tulani's that I quoted seemed to be leaning that way. I could be reading that into it, but my opinion stands, all the same.
You are reading me wrong. I am against making children do school work during the summer. I am not against them reading, or doing anything else that is structured. Life is not all about play.
However, it should be about choice for your child. Children should be free to choose how they will fill their free time. We insist that "school" is our child's job. Well when school is let out then that child is out of a job for the summer. Let them grow and explore in whatever way they, and your family sees fit.
Don't let schools dictate your summer months.
THAT is all I am saying.
I and most teachers with whom I've ever come into contact actually dispute a fair number of district decisions and policies. Short of being self-employed private tutors, though, dealing with the bureaucracy of a larger system, flaws and all, is part of the package.
Trust me that there are few teachers who are waving the flag of NCLB being some kind of revolutionary, awesome mandate, if any. Trust me that teachers have less than zero interest in dictating summer activities.
You are reading me wrong. I am against making children do school work during the summer. I am not against them reading, or doing anything else that is structured. Life is not all about play.
However, it should be about choice for your child. Children should be free to choose how they will fill their free time. We insist that "school" is our child's job. Well when school is let out then that child is out of a job for the summer. Let them grow and explore in whatever way they, and your family sees fit.
Don't let schools dictate your summer months.
THAT is all I am saying.
You can't make an analogy between an adult's job and kids' education, IMO. It's apples and oranges. Child rearing, part of which is education, is 24/7.
I think there's something to be said for balance. One or two assigned books that can be read in the days leading up to school allows students to hit the ground running, and I find it helps my kids to get their heads back into study mode. None of them has ever been overwhelmed by a novel, even if it didn't appeal to them at first glance. (That being said, if I were the poster whose middle-school son is required to read Little Women, I think I'd have a chat with the literature teacher about offering a more appropriate choice for both boys and girls. Even my daughter can't stomach that book!) As for the honors students like my oldest, I agree with Charles Wallace that summer work comes with the territory.
My middle child's assigned reading for the summer is Rebecca, and the oldest will read Cry, The Beloved Country. The youngest will need to get a start on three required novels from a list of titles for a Battle of the Books program offered by our district, most of which I suspect he would have picked up from the library on his own. I will be reading Les Miserables with thanks to the poster mentioned it earlier in the thread!
My kids have to read 24 books over the summer. Two of them are assigned and the rest can be anything from the suggested reading list or any other book they fancy. Also books read aloud to them count.
Our kids finished class yesterday with a half-day . . . (school gets to bill a full day for that). But the school had already stopped teaching a couple of weeks ago after the Texas State Mandated STAAR Tests.
So at any rate, we had grabbed the Half Priced Books, Barnes and Noble, and the Library lists, and started putting them together -- but the kids found the pile and one of them are about half way through, since the school stopped teaching.
A lot of kids would learn a lot more if the education industry were not in the way.
That last sentence is priceless. I hate it when teachers and parents turn children off. There is such a world out there to explore. We visited historical places and some fun places in the Summer and on holidays when my children were young. We also had season tickets to Carowinds for two years in a row. My children loved to invite friends to go with them to Carowinds. Children don't seem to talk to each other with no recesses, etc. so I considered the play time as their social education.
I wonder how many parents get up and ask their children what would be their ideal day.
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