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They weren't classics. Those were covered during the school year and the school provided them. Summer books were the newest best sellers by guys like Thomas Friedman, Michael Sandel, or Pete Hamil. Some of the required books were fiction, but many were not. This was at the high school level.
I've read books by the first two, not familar with Hamil. That sounds like an excellent summer reading list for anyone. Sandel is an excellent professor at Harvard and I found his books easy to read. Teachers should take a look at his Justice website to get some ideas on how to teach and motivate students to want to learn.
Right now I'm sitting in the library, where my kids and I spend a lot of time during the summer as our house is not air-conditioned, and the afternoon heat can be brutal. I am surrounded by students of all ages, working alone and with tutors. At the next table is an Asian family who is here everyday for about three hours. Two of the children are studying math, which appears very advanced for their ages, while their sister is curled up in a nearby chair reading what looks to be Hawthorne. Mom is sitting with them and answering the occasional question. It has just dawned on me that by the time school begins in the fall, these children will have spent an additional 150 hours on academics. That's nearly an entire year of math instruction in a classroom environment!
My husband notes frequently that his coworkers are looking more and more like the Asian family sitting next to me here at the library. I pointed out to my kids yesterday that a few years from now, when one or more of those children is a high school valedictorian with a full-ride scholarship to university, many will simply chalk it up to superior intellect. I want my children to recognize that those accomplishments are the result of hard work and consistency.
My middle child is attending sleepaway camp this month. If a student spends 30-60 minutes of his or her afternoon free time reading, there's plenty of time to finish all assignments before school commences in the fall. It's a time management issue, and competency in this area will serve kids well when they become adults. I consider it part of my job as their parent to help them develop those skills. Two of my children have swim practice every morning beginning at 8:00 a.m. There is an hour break between their sessions. Most of my kids' peers spend their time running around like whirling dervishes or flirting. We find a quiet corner in the clubhouse and read or study. When the second practice is over, my kids have the rest of the day for goofing off. They don't always appreciate my demands for work before play, but I think they'll thank me when they're adults.
Last edited by randomparent; 06-20-2012 at 01:23 PM..
If teachers think that there are certain pieces of literature their students should be exposed to, that's great. But include it as part of the curriculum during the school year and spread out book purchases throughout the year. Some of the books that I had to get for my high schooler were large volumes of literature/philosophy or only available in hardcover and cost $30-$40 or more. Then after spending all that money on several expensive books, the books are only used for a week or two at the beginning of Sept. and it's over.
I am not a big fan of summer reading but I think it is pretty ridiculous to send your kids off to camp for nearly the entire summer and then blame summer reading for cutting into family time.
I don't like summer reading because it doesn't give kids a chance to do other things besides school. I am a huge proponent of education but I also believe that education occurs in other places besides school. However, sending your kid away for the whole summer and then blaming the school for the lack of family time is pretty ridiculous. If you want family time keep your kid home during the summer.
I have never personally sent my kids to sleep away camp since I never could afford it, nor did we ever lack for family time since my work was fairly flexible. However, in my particular area, I am in the minority. I am not blaming summer reading lists for lack of family time, what I was saying is that the students do not perform the assignments as intended and therefore, get less out of them because the majority of them are not home for the summer. They rush through them, using shortcuts, getting little benefit out of a project that they might have learned from if it had been assigned at a different time. The local teachers here too send their own kids away for the summer or part of the summer and complain about the summer assignments as much as everyone else. The high school students go off to camp to become CITs or junior counselors or the precollege programs at U of P or John Hopkins (also very popular) or a study abroad program or they're working very hard at their Intell project at a lab. These are not at-risk students. The public and the private schools somehow feel it is necessary to churn out these summer assignments every year because it looks good on paper when they are really just a nuisance because of their timing.
Well it's been 4 years since I've had to deal with it so I can't recall all the specific titles off the top of my head. Some, not all, of the books were recent releases on the NY Times Best Seller list. They were fairly new at the time and only available in hardcover. Now, I could get them at the library, but they are 7 day or 14 day only books and have waiting lists, not only for students but from adult patrons.
Now I think it's very commendable that the teachers want to expose them to current literature. I thought it was an excellent decision to expose the kids to David McCullough's John Adams which did win a Pultizer. At the time, it was a new release, only available in hardcover. This was before Nook/Kindle. The library had it sure, but as a new release I was only eligible to get it through my local library, no interlibrary loan, and there was a long waiting list for it. We had no choice but to buy it, along with several other titles that the teachers wanted as part of the research/compare/contrast type of summer assignment. The students weren't going to continue studying these books over a few months. The kids did their assignment and handed it in the first day of school. They sort of discussed the books during the first week of school and that was the end of it. And there were several of these expensive books on the summer reading list for that teacher, who if I recall correctly, was actually the English teacher. The social studies teacher had his own separate summer reading list and assignment. The AP art history teacher had her own summer reading list and assignment. And I couldn't obtain them all from the local library.
Now, if they had given out a list of these same books in September and asked that you please get them by certain dates throughout the year, I might have been able to get on the library waiting list and get them on time or if I had to buy them, I didn't have to go to the bookstore (remember this was a few years ago) and spend a small fortune on high school books - not college books - in one shot when my cash flow situation wasn't exactly great. And actually they did do this too, which was fine, but then they had the blasted summer books to get on top of it. And from what I understand, the high school is still continuing this practice currently. I just think it's overkill. Our kids all did very well on the SATs and they all got into their top colleges, which they would have done with or without the stupid summer reading. I just feel that the summer assignments have become an obligatory part of education and is pointless for some student populations and is just parental punishment.
I've read books by the first two, not familar with Hamil. That sounds like an excellent summer reading list for anyone. Sandel is an excellent professor at Harvard and I found his books easy to read. Teachers should take a look at his Justice website to get some ideas on how to teach and motivate students to want to learn.
Pete Hamill is a NYC icon, especially from his newspaper column. He was just on a documentary about Pratt Institute on TV and he's also a writer of fiction. While certainly, not a children's author, his Snow in August is usually a staple of middle school language arts.
Let's drop the pretense of protecting other people's children from burden of summer work. The quality of their work is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what your individual child learns from completing the reading/project.
Coney, it is apparent that you have given your children the gift of a superior education. Help them make the most of it by showing gratitude for what less fortunate districts can only dream of providing. Remind them that in adulthood they will do many things for an employer that aren't necessarily fun, and lest you think it's better if you're self-employed, let me assure you that's not the case. Explain that being able to manage a project from start to finish and produce quality work in an environment full of distractions is an important skill that they need to develop now. Teach them that adulthood doesn't provide two month vacations every summer. It will make all the difference for them.
*Oops! I just noticed that your kids have graduated. Oh well, perhaps my comment will be meaningful to others.
Let's drop the pretense of protecting other people's children from burden of summer work. The quality of their work is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what your individual child learns from completing the reading/project.
Coney, it is apparent that you have given your children the gift of a superior education. Help them make the most of it by showing gratitude for what less fortunate districts can only dream of providing. Remind them that in adulthood they will do many things for an employer that aren't necessarily fun, and lest you think it's better if you're self-employed, let me assure you that's not the case. Explain that being able to manage a project from start to finish and produce quality work in an environment full of distractions is an important skill that they need to develop now. Teach them that adulthood doesn't provide two month vacations every summer. It will make all the difference for them.
*Oops! I just noticed that your kids have graduated. Oh well, perhaps my comment will be meaningful to others.
If you read my post, I said that reading lists were not useful for Some student populations and that they were better served in underprivileged districts. I did not say that they have no value universally. I am speaking as a parent who saw children attend pressure cooker schools. I am just making my voice for students who are not the average, but come from public magnet schools, pressure cooker secular and nonsectarian private schools, or public schools where the parents were very highly educated and pro-active and "shipped out" their special needs children, leaving only the over-acheivers. These kids are so self-driven and ambitious, they are well-aware about doing things that may not be fun and are masters at time management. And allowing time for community service is a HUGE factor in their schooling. This is my community, not necessarily yours and the summer assignments were merely a burden with limited educational value. One cannot argue Summer Reading lists are good. Summer reading lists are bad. The answer is, it depends.
In contrast, I would imagine that implementing summer reading lists, in districts where the students would really benefit from additional literary exposure might be difficult to enforce if you are unable to get parental cooperation. This type of program requires parental involvement to take children to the library or purchase books, unless the district will provide the books for the students. I would conjecture that districts might be leary of doing that since they may not get them back. Fortunately, some of the students in my connunity are volunteer tutors at underpriviledged schools, but are hardly adequate substitutes for parents.
Last edited by Coney; 06-20-2012 at 10:42 PM..
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