Boxes of yellow and green Crayola
markers and other school supplies fill the shelves of our neighborhood grocery
store. You know what that means. It’s back to school time! A time when joyful
parents anticipate the end of summer vacation and high school kids scramble to
complete their summer reading assignments.
We librarians on the front lines –
the reference desk - are besieged by kids who have to write a report or do a
project based on a class-assigned book selected by their teacher. And it’s due
tomorrow! And all the copies are checked out! It’s a desperate time.
Back in the day – cue the black and
white newsreel accompanied by old timey piano music – summer really was a vacation
from school. Summer reading meant books of our own choosing, books taken musty
and soft from the shelves in a lakeside cottage, or pulled from the hushed and
dim recesses of a city library, or borrowed from a friend. We chose our own
books.
Today’s kids, overscheduled with
enrichment camps and sports leagues, now have math packets and civics
assignments and book reports to complete in the break between the last and
first days of school. They have assigned reading shouldering aside those last
chances for a book of their own choice.
Here in the land of the helicopter
parent, where every child is gifted (take that, Lake Wobegon), teachers assign
a summer reading book carefully.
What’s new in this school-assigned
summer reading?
Summer Reading Lists in my county now
come with a warning:
“Please note that the books on this
list may contain mature content and/or controversial material (i.e. offensive
language, violence, and/or implied or explicit sexual situations). The
resources listed below can be used to see book reviews and get more information
about the books we will use in our class.”
Sure, I want to roll my eyes. Does
everything, even literature, have to come bubble wrapped with a safety warning?
But part of me is also amused and more than a bit pleased. I know the schools
are just trying to ward off outraged parents, but this is an affirmation of what
I’ve believed for a long time: Reading can be a dangerous undertaking. Imagine
all those new ideas and epiphanies lying in wait for Cayden and Sophia.
Literature can change minds, wound hearts, scar psyches. I know this wasn’t the
motivation for the warning, but I can’t help getting a kick out of this
unintentional nod to the power of books.
I understand why schools assign summer reading. But why can't the kids choose the books? I used to love summer vacation because I could finally read what I wanted to read. Family sagas in junior high. Suspense novels in high school. I feel bad for today's kids who don't have the options we did.
ReplyDeleteThe first summer reading list I received was in 1961 when I entered ninth grade. On the list was "Jane Eyre." I spent many a summer day reading that classic and enjoying it. I'm glad it was on the list since I'm sure at that age it wasn't a book I would have pulled off a library shelf of my own volition. I think summer reading lists help lead kids to books they probably wouldn't read otherwise. The big question is always why those particular books.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful I was a child of the 50s and 60s. Benign neglect by all adults is a powerfully good thing for children, but that seems to be in short supply these days.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank goodness kids still have access to subversive reading material. Too bad they have to be told what to read.
~ Jim
I never minded assigned reading. Being exposed to different genres and writing styles is part of the educational process. Most readers have "their" authors or styles/genres, which keep them in a rut. School-age children need exposure to new ideas, genres, writing styles (even if they are really old classics). A label on a book makes me react in the same way I did the other day--a container of peanuts was labeled: "Warning: this product was processed in a facility that handles nuts." Really!
ReplyDeleteI always had a list of assigned books for summer reading. They were usually hard to get hold of. Who could afford to buy all those books? The lists went with the grades and were unchanging, so somebody usually had a copy from an older sibling, and we'd share. Although I do remember the year nobody had a copy of Moby-Dick, and none of us read it. We all lost a grade point in English the first quarter of the new school year.
ReplyDeleteOnce we counted up the number of kids on our block of single family houses, and there were 124 of us.
Our preferred reading was Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Cherry Ames, Bobsey Twins (not as popular) and similar series we passed around. The local public library deemed them not suitable for their collection, although they did have the Little House books.
I remember the frantic flurry of essay writing the week before school started.Reading the books was never a problem, but the writing was, particularly for the AP classes.
ReplyDeleteAnd then my rising college freshmen were issued a book at orientation: their summer reading assignment! Their initial outrage and frustration was followed by a huge sense of relief because all they had to do was read the book and be prepared to discuss it.
I'm even older than Jim. We had no assigned lists. In fact, thinking back only two books were required reading in high school English. One year it was Ivanhoe and the next year Romeo and Juliet. I didn't need assigned books to enjoy reading. I loved books and much of that came because my parents were readers, and even though money was a little tight with the size of our family, they belonged to Book-of-the-Month club. I remember my mother recommending A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. By today's standards that was mild compared to what is now written, but there were some scenes that had me shocked my mother would recommend this. No open sex, of course, but allusions to it. Now the only books I'm assigned to read are those picked by my two book clubs. They introduce me to many books I either never heard of or probably wouldn't have picked up on my own.
ReplyDeleteGeez, I'm getting tired of noticing things that make me feel old. I also grew up in the time before assigned reading lists. I still spent my summers reading (and writing in my journal), generally sitting sideways in a tall-back green upholstered chair in my parents' living room. I read every Nancy Drew and Bobbsey Twin we had, sometimes multiple times. And there was a large book of American Poetry that I read and re-read (and read and re-read again) which is probably why I started writing poetry before I finally (in my 50s) started to write mystery stories.
ReplyDeleteMy kids were assigned reading lists, but if I recall correctly, they had to read a certain number from a much larger list of possible titles. At least they had some choice in the matter. Neither were avid readers, but then it was already the generation of screens (but before Kindle and Nook).
Hi Barb - I think my summer choices were like yours! The thing that shocks me the most about the schools' summer reading lists is that they don't expect the kids to read much at all. A six page list of options and the expectation is that they will read ONE book. That's what shocks me.
ReplyDeleteHi Grace,
ReplyDeleteIt's great when a book like Jane Eyre falls into your lap! Your comment is spot on - WHY those particular books? I see some teachers recommending their own favorite authors and I scratch my head. One teacher recently required that her fifth grade students read The Hunger Games. A terrific book, but really? A book about kids killing kids for 12 year olds?
I'm with you, Jim. We may have been the last "free range" generation.
ReplyDeleteHi EB, I saw a jar like that, too. Walnuts. "processed in a facility where there were nuts." I sure hope so!
ReplyDeleteI do think kids should read widely, which is why some of the books that are chosen for lists make me, well, nuts. Also, the expectation of the number of books kids will read is so very low. If you look at the screen time for many kids - between 2-6 hours per day, there's a lot of time for reading.
KM, I am always surprised when I hear about libraries that deemed some books unsuitable for kids! Thank goodness the library in my town had no problem supplying me with my Nancy Drews.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the cost of books. It all can add up quickly if kids have to buy them.
Hi Margaret - I can imagine the relief! I've seen these One Book, One School programs and I think it's a great way for the kids to get to know each other. My younger daughter's school (Boston College) did one by Ann Patchett - wish I could remember which one. And the school pays the student the compliment of assuming that reading one book will not be too onerous.
ReplyDeleteGloria, I remember Ivanhoe! I imagine it's not on many lists any more. I thought it was so romantic!
ReplyDeleteMy book club functions the same way for me - it makes me read outside my comfort zone and that's a good thing.
Hi Denise, I think we spent the summers in the company of the same books! My kids are from that same "in between" generation. They read with both Kindles and with paper books. It will be interesting to see what happens with the all-screen kids, the digital natives. I've seen research that kids don't retain information as well when the read if off a screen - wonder what this will mean for books and reading down the road.
ReplyDeleteThe Tulane Reading Project 2015 selection is Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped.
ReplyDeleteReading is subversive. So is writing.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, that's one I've been wanting to read!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Warren!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember having summer reading lists when I was in school. I'm glad because summer was the time when my parents recommended books that they enjoyed. I remember discussing Harry Kemelman (Rabbi Small) and Tony Hillerman books after dinner while we sat outside next to the fire pit.
ReplyDeleteOh, Kara, how I loved the Rabbi books. Now I want to go reread them. How nice that you and your folks shared the same taste in books. Sadly, my dad likes nonfiction and my mom likes biographies. No mystery lovers except for me.
ReplyDelete