Suspend Summer Reading, Suspend Stress

Schools Should Not Require Summer Reading

The+Abington+Middle-High+School+Library%2C+seen+here+on+October+8%2C+2019%2C+has+a+variety+of+books+for+students+to+check+out+during+the+school+year+from+7%3A10+a.m+to+3%3A00+p.m.

Anna Blyth

The Abington Middle-High School Library, seen here on October 8, 2019, has a variety of books for students to check out during the school year from 7:10 a.m to 3:00 p.m.

Brendan O'Brien, Contributor

Reading over the summer is not advantageous to students because there are a lot of more beneficial things they can be doing. After a long hard school year, students need to just chill out and have fun. When they are given summer reading, it stresses them out when all they want to do is rest their brains in preparation for the upcoming year. 

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After a long hard school year, students need to just chill out and have fun.

— Brendan O'Brien

Students are being told to read a book over the summer, which is wrong. Most students are going to just read a random book to do the assignment they were given and then never look at the book again. They will never learn anything about their book this way. They are just rushing to finish instead of taking their time and trying to break down the book and learn from it. This is not beneficial.

Instead of making assigned summer reading mandatory, teachers should get together and come up with a few books for the students to read over the summer. The teachers should give students the option to read and leave it up to the students whether they do or not. That way, students might actually take the time to enjoy their book instead of just doing it because they have to.

Summer reading puts too much stress on students. It takes away vacation time for them to rest their brains during summer. That is the main reason I believe summer reading should not be required.