Sitting in your room without a stack of assignments. Hanging out with friends discussing topics unrelated to school. Going through each day with a stress-free mind. This is what most students look forward to when they think of summertime: a well deserved break from school. As highschool students go through each year, however, the focus has seemed to shift from a period of relaxation to a continued rush of summer assignments.
The questions arise again this summer: are these assignments beneficial to students or are they busy work? Are they influencing students to feel burnt out and overwhelmed before the school year has begun? Or are they all needed in order for students to get back on their feet before the school year begins?
Summer assignments help students to intellectually exercise their brain before school returns. Summer assignments also remind students of the stress of due dates and time management before the summer is over. Where is the middle ground? Students need to feel prepared before school starts, but at what extent? Is it worth it for them to feel overwhelmed when they are supposed to be relaxing?
A balance is needed within the amount of assignments east students are receiving. When looking at two English books or an AP United States History assignment, on its own the amount of work seems achievable. This is before it’s combined together for a single student. When rising Juniors have to also prioritize SAT prep. And when rising seniors are already worried about completing college applications. Students need to be able to learn during the summer, without feeling the same level of stress that the school year can often bring.
When it comes to Honors and AP level English classes, it has been made clear through the focus of essays and discussions that the assigned book is more prevalent in these classrooms than the choice book. The choice book gets mentioned briefly, and then is ignored afterwards. With an already long and complex assigned book, these students should be devoting their time to understanding and reading this book. The choice book comes off as busy work, instead of a truly helpful assignment. It isn’t worth these students time and effort to have this choice book when it isn’t being used to help advance their understanding of literature.
AP U.S. History and other AP classes that assign work present a different kind of thought process. If the teacher deems it necessary for students to review certain material before the school year begins, that’s one thing. But, they should be assignments that are to benefit students before the school year. They shouldn’t be assignments where students are having to learn new material they haven’t been taught before during the summer. The assignment also shouldn’t be used as a way to simply get more material covered before the school year starts. With these assignments, the teachers assigning them need to be mindful of the summer workload already put on these students. It isn’t beneficial to students if they are already in a high state of stress before school has begun.
When summer work is being assigned to students, administrators need to keep the question in mind: is this helping students learn something new or is this busy work for the summer? I urge the East administrators to stop the continuous pattern that reoccurs each school year. Give students the opportunity to relax their minds while still staying educated. Make the necessary changes.