With regard to the Times article, and the discussion following, I thought I'd mention that our school district has instituted a mandatory summer reading program for ninth and tenth graders. To quote from the article in our local paper:
"'This is not an optional program,'" said district superintendent... "the summer reading program...will be a prerequisite for a diploma.
A multi-paragraph personal reaction paper must be completed for each work, which includes the likes of Julius Caesar, The Crucible, and Huckleberry Finn. Each student must read at least one or more works from the required list, and one or more works from the supplemental list.
'The overall rigor of this program is very impressive," the superintendent said, 'but not beyond any of our students.'"
It goes on to say that guided teacher instruction will be available during evening seminars at the high school library, and the local Barnes and Noble will provide "support" groups.
Is this a good idea? Maybe. I'm halfway convinced that kids should go to school year round, with longish breaks between quarters, anyway, and I've always made sure that my oldest son is reading in the summer. (This summer he's doing some math, too, due to his grades.) But...one or more books from two lists? Obviously, the requirement for the summer is two books, total, with kids who want to read more encouraged to do so. But how many will stick with just the two? (Which I know is better than nothing for some kids who wouldn't have picked up a book otherwise all summer.) And...support groups? As if summer reading were a new and dangerous disease? "I am Jack's overtaxed brain..."
This is all colored by the fact that I'm not wild about our district on a lot of levels, so maybe I'm being overly critical, but this also just seems sad to me. No one had to require me to read over the summer, or ever.
I joined a book group when we first moved to this town, and didn't stay long. My impression was there were two or three of us who read the books and were eager to discuss them, five or six who read the books without any joy or reflection (because if you're in a book club, you must the read the book, period), and the rest either never read or never finished the books and seemed to join solely for the dinner and the husband-less, kid-less night out. I can't tell you how many people I know who just never ever pick up a book, and always look at me kind of funny when I talk about reading. Yet, our Barnes and Noble is always packed. Either everyone's just flipping pages in the cafe to pass an hour, or some people are reading.