Here's this week Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:
Smartmom doesn’t get the point of summer homework. Isn’t summer
supposed to be about recreation, relaxation and fun? Isn’t it a time to
do things other than school work? Smartmom thinks there’s plenty of
time for school work during the other 10 months of the year.
But Smartmom has nothing against summer reading. And the Oh So
Feisty One has been reading quite a bit this summer. At the moment,
she’s hooked on a book called “Peace, Love & Baby Ducks” by Lauren
Myracle.
But every day she whines, “I have to find ‘Tangerine.’”
That’s the young adult book by Edward Bloor that is assigned to all
the incoming seventh graders at her middle school. It sounds like a
decent book. But why does she have to read it this summer?
In addition to “Tangerine,” OSFO has to pick from a list of approved books for another reading selection.
Unfortunately, none of the books she has read this summer are on
that list. Sure, the list includes a great group of books. But she’s
read a bunch of them and some of them don’t interest her at all. At
least that’s what she tells Smartmom, who knows that the very fact that
they’re on the list makes them less interesting to OSFO because she’s
got that anti-authoritarian streak she inherited from Hepcat.
Whatever. Smartmom wondered if “Peace, Love & Baby Ducks” could
be substituted for her summer reading book. Why not? It’s a perfectly
fine book, maybe even a tad literary.
“No, it’s not on the list,” said OSFO, the oh so literal one.
“Well, maybe we should call the principal to get special dispensation …”
OSFO wasn’t having it. Finally, she did pick a book from that list,
“The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” by Paula Danzinger, something she’s already
read.
From Smartmom’s experience with summer reading (and she’s had
plenty), it’s not like the books are integrated into the curriculum
even though the kids are required to write a two-page essay about each
book.
In fact, Smartmom has never heard about those essays once they’re
handed in. Smartmom wonders what happens to those essays. Do they go
into some gigantic folder called Summer Reading? Are they sent to the
recycling?
More important, why do the schools insist on insinuating themselves
into the lives of their students 24/7? OSFO’s life already revolves
around school. So does Smartmom’s. But like OSFO, she enjoys the
two-month break from school schedules and homework.
Sure, the American educational system is way behind other countries,
which have longer school days and school years. But what’s wrong with
letting life be the educator for a few months of the year?
That’s what summer is all about. It’s a chance to spend time with
family and friends and to experience new people, places and things.
It’s also a time to discover the pleasure of unassigned reading.
Smartmom doesn’t remember any summer homework when she was a kid.
But that was back in the 1970s when progressive education was in vogue.
Summer meant family vacations on Fire Island, Maine or Martha’s
Vineyard. During one memorable summer vacation, the family visited the
Grand Tetons in Wyoming.
For years, Smartmom went to sleepaway camp, where she had the chance
to exist outside of the strictures of family and school. There she
learned to folk dance, to play the guitar and the lyrics to every
protest song imaginable.
It was a great time — and a welcome break from school and family.
This summer, Smartmom decided to read Dostoyevsky. During the rainy
days of June, she read “The Idiot,” the story of the epileptic Prince
Myshkin (and Dumb Editor’s favorite of the enigmatic Russian’s doorstop
books).
On Block Island, she dove into “Crime and Punishment,” the great
novel about Raskolnikov’s remorseless crime. And in the bright
California sun, she read “The Brothers Karamazov.”
It’s been a heavy summer full of nihilism, human psychology and the
spiritual, political and social world of 19th-century Russia
What if Smartmom had required reading? She’d never get a chance to wrap her head around The Brothers K.
Luckily, Smartmom doesn’t have to write a two-page essay on her
summer reading. But OSFO does and she better get going. It’s mid-August
and it’s time for OSFO to get cracking.
Anyone have a copy of “Tangerine”?
Sounds like your daughter would do well at my school. The rising 7th and 8th graders create (with teacher guidance and approval) their own personal summer reading and writing projects.
We offer kids suggested titles (“If you’ve read ____, you might enjoy ____”) at different reading levels if they have trouble choosing books, and we do ask incoming 6th graders to bring in a book they read over the summer and be ready to talk about it. But books are not assigned.
If I were you, I would talk with the principal about the goals and methods of literacy instruction in the school. As a teacher, the value of those “essays” (which will probably be more like summaries, unless the kids are getting instruction in how to write essays) worries me. What’s the point of them? To prove that kids read those books? Eesh. So many other, better ways to do that!