What time is it? Summertime, it’s our vacation. What time is it? Summertime, school’s out scream and shout! But, was school really ever out this summer?  

Throughout the entire school year, students spend their time taking notes, studying materials, and getting overloaded with work.  Summer vacation is supposed to be a time to get away from all of the work, but this is not entirely true for Hillsborough students thanks to that one thing that’s assigned every summer–summer reading.

Summer reading is meant to help keep students’ brains active over the two month break.  Personally, I understand this concept, but do not agree with how it is implemented.  Between CP English students, honors English students, and AP English students, the amount of work varies greatly.

Students in college prep English courses are required to read one book, while honors and AP students have much more work to do.  Along with the reading and work assigned over summer, many classes take tests and other graded assignments on the books that were assigned over the summer months. So, if a student read a text in June, he or she could feasibly be tested on the material in September. In a normal classroom setting, it is unlikely a student would be tested on material three months after reading it.

While some may argue that these students are in higher-level classes because of their abilities, I believe that those abilities should not equate with summer punishment.

“The amount of work I had to do over summer was ridiculous,” junior Liz Reilly said. “I ended up cramming everything in the last few nights of summer just because I didn’t want to do it before.”

This year, for the first time, we had group discussions in homeroom about an assigned read, I Am Malala.  In my opinion, this was not an efficient way of covering the book and assessing students.  Honestly, I didn’t even read the book over the summer, and I know that a majority of my classmates did not read the book either.  The homeroom discussions were honestly not taken seriously. Sure, it worked out for me, but I still can’t see the benefit of the assignment, especially since I did not read the book and feel it ultimately didn’t matter whether I did or didn’t do the assigned work.

In my opinion, summer should be the one time of the year when students and even teachers are able to get away from the pressure and stress of school. Like many of my peers, I feel overwhelmed on a daily basis with the amount of stress that is put on my plate. I need the summer to unwind and destress.

I understand the fact that reading will help students to pick up with their next year of school in the fall, however, the amount given is not beneficial.  I believe there should be a standard book that every student needs to read, and nothing more, regardless of the level of English class a student is enrolled in for the fall. Perhaps a few choices could be offered to cater to students’ varied interests as well.

Summer offers a time to get away from the responsibilities that school brings us, and I believe that summer reading defeats this purpose.