When summer finally comes at Southern Lehigh, students first experience feelings of exhilaration, but frustration quickly follows when they remember the books they are required to read before the start of the next school year.
Books can be extremely exciting and interesting; however, when students are required to read specific books, they often don’t go out of their way to find other books they would legitimately enjoy reading. This makes students feel that no books are fun to read, and discourages many from reading for pleasure. According to hotforwords.com, 42 percent of people who graduate from college never read another book.
“I like reading when it’s a good book,” freshman Madison Anthony said.
Some schools allow students to choose summer reading books from a list, giving them the chance to select books they may enjoy more. This year, Southern Lehigh has changed the summer reading for most of the college prep level English courses to allow students to select books from a list in addition to reading some mandatory books. Although it is important to expose students to different types of literature, it is also important to show students that they can enjoy reading.
“I would like [this system] better because I would be able to choose something I am interested in,” sophomore Arden Stayer said.
Many students also struggle with the exams on summer reading material when they return to school. When students read books at the beginning of the summer, they have two months to forget the material they have read. With the new summer reading system, many courses require students to keep journal entries as they read which will eliminate the struggle to remember details of a book read so long ago.
“You read it at the beginning of the summer, then you forget it,” freshman Kristen Kylish said.
Reading is only fun for students when they read something that they are interested in, and while it is important to be exposed to a wide variety of literature, it is also important to expose students to books they actually enjoy. Students should have the opportunity to find books that they don’t want to put down, not books they don’t want to pick up.
