summer reading

[Julian Gerhart]

I am preparing to petition my highschool to do away with required summer reading on the grounds that the key criteion for their selection seems to be that they have no cliffs notes and despite the fact that they force otherwise anti reading students to crack a book during the summer they only serve to piss off the students that would read anyway by requiring them to interupt their reading schedule to make way for the consitant stream of mediocre coming of age stories and "contemporary classics" that they are constantly shuving up my @ss. whew, that was a long sentance.

does anyone have any suggestions as how I might go about doing this?

[Soulend]

Possibly you could kidnap one of the lunch ladies.

[larsen_huw]

Julian,

You could kidnap all the punctuation in the first 6 1/2 lines of your post .... oh, wait! You already have!

Maybe some reading would help improve that punctuation.

[Soulend]

Preferably a book containing the words constant, shoving, and sentence.

[Geoff]

How about requesting texts you find relevant and exciting for next year or requesting alternative assignments?

Of course, I'm only a teacher....

Geoff Wingard

[Evan London]

How about a petition to have the students choose the book list instead of doing away with the list all together? It may be a good compromise that has a changce to suceed. The likelihood that the school system would do away with the summer reading list entirely is non-existent.

Good luck!
Ev

[Soulend]

Since you're a senior, you won't have to do it again anyway, right? I would bring it up to the student council, suggesting alternate texts. Since summer reading is probably something mandated by the school board, getting it completely eliminated would be unlikely.

When suggesting alternate books, try to keep in mind what you think the teachers may buy off on. Probably the more mainstream and inoffensive, the better. It might be an idea to check with other high schools' reading lists, perhaps they have texts more to your liking. And if another school is using it, that would lend weight to your suggestion.

[G. Zepeda]

Yeah,
Drop out and run for superintendent of schools while you still know everything. That way, you can make Cliff's Notes the required reading, throw keggers for the incoming freshmen, and hire live porn stars for the new sex education teachers.

[stanley neptune]

Read...read...read. Read everything you can get your hands on. I was the worst student in high school. I preferred working at a local restaurant as a busboy 48 hours a week. My extra curricular activities were getting bombed and high with the cooks and waitresses in the parking lot after work until 2:00 am.

Our high school class advisor, Miss Judy I will call her, a science teacher in this suburb of Worcester, Mass., told me I would never amount to anything in life. Two degrees, a professional license, ownership of a couple of national companies, and a home on the ocean later I think I proved her wrong. I now manage a $100,000,000 bond portfolio on a daily basis and where is Miss Judy.

The point of all this you may ask? I was a lousy student in High School and was constsantly getting thrown out of class but by eighth grade I was reading books on the NY times best seller list.

Anti-reading students = morons. Read my friend. Read it all.

Stanley Neptune

[Peter H.]

May I recomend some reading before making your proposal:
Ferinhet 451 - Bradbury
1984 - Orwell
A Brave New World - Huxley

All illistrate the dangers of reading on your own.

[Shitoryu Dude]

I personnaly have a beef with "summer reading" lists as well, and I read a great deal.

First off, it is your vacation time. As your teacher is no doubt collecting a paycheck for 90 days of doing nothing, why should you have to do anything other than work on your tan? Also, your family may be doing something that precludes time for you spend 30 hours reading material that is not good enough to actually spend class time reading.

Secondly, you have no idea which students will be in the school district when classes start. Gee, I just transferred in two weeks before school and they assigned War and Peace to be read over the summer and there is a test. Please go shove it up your ass - not only is the book boring, it is blatently unfair to transfer students. Or are you going to grade them diffently that the other students - sorry, but that is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Finally, the school system is required to supply you with any material it is going to test you on (this has been determined in court cases going back to at least the 60's or 70's) - unless they give you a copy of the book you cannot be expected to obtain a copy on your own. Book stores may not carry it, you may not be able to afford it, the library may not have enough copies. Despite your best efforts it is quite likely that you will be unable to obtain said book.

Hire a lawyer and tell your literature teacher to shove it.

Then, do some reading, its good for you.

[kirigirisu]

Originally posted by stanley neptune
Our high school class advisor, Miss Judy I will call her, a science teacher in this suburb of Worcester, Mass., told me I would never amount to anything in life.

Judy Whitmore?

[Julian Gerhart]

I realize that my first sentance in that paragraph is ridiculous. I didn't intend it to get that long, it just happened.

I probably should have mentioned that I go to a pricey private school. It is not governed by any board. unfortunatly the honcho in charge of everything is the archbishop. The langauge arts teachers (average age: 77) make the summer reading list. I once had a conversation with one of them concerning the books that were on the list. I was shut out pretty well. I also spoke to the pricipal about the possibiltiy of shifting control onto the students. He told me that the obvious problem with alowing the students to select thier own summer reding is that the vast majority of highshcool students will do their utmost to have "easy", short, or or previously read books added to the list. and that would likly not be an improvment for those who like to read. oops, there's another long sentance.

I do read a lot. unfortunatly I'm a busy guy. during the school year I have another 8-12 books to read as part of langauge arts and social studies classes. Those tend to be of higher quality, so I don't mind them quite as much. after I do that reading all my other homework and fufilled(sp?) my other obligations I am only left with 20-40 minutes during which I can read what I want.

[Shitoryu Dude]

Such is the price of attending a private school - that rather changes the entire scenario and my opinion of it.

Do your reading, drop some of your other activities to make the time if needed, and be damned thankful your parents care so much about your future. And in a few short years this will be over and you will be in college - where you will have even less time on a regular basis, but your summers should at least be free.

[Soulend]

First off, it is your vacation time. As your teacher is no doubt collecting a paycheck for 90 days of doing nothing,

My wife needs to work in such a system. During the summer down here staff and faculty don't get paid.