Summer reading assignments are seriously pointless.

The Southfield Public Schools District assigns summer reading to all grades in Southfield, year after year, to ensure that students stay educationally active throughout the summer. But this effort to keep learning going on all year long is futile. 

Summer reading is given at a bad time (June) when kids just want to get away from school and the work that comes with it. As a result, students avoid doing the work when they get it. Others fret about it all summer, then do it in a rush at the end of summer or just cheat by reading Spark Notes instead of the actual book. The homework causes them stress.

In the summer kids are more likely to neglect any work given out because the grade sometimes in the past hasn’t been counted heavily by the next teacher, or if it is counted, it is not a major grade. It would make more sense and be more effective if the reading assigned in the summer were discussed before it was assigned and then reviewed in September.

The summer could be used for other valuable activities, such as vacationing, gaining more job experience, looking for college scholarships and working out to stay in shape.

It’s true that summer reading can keep kids educationally active in the summer so that when they come to the new school year their brains are still in a learning mode. But that takes the vacation out of summer vacation.

Those students who have family members out of state and don’t get to see them often would likely prefer to spend their vacation time with those people. Summer assignments are taking students away from family and fun.

Besides spending time with family, students could also go on job hunts. Gaining job experience while they are in high school will be very beneficial in the long run. It will give students something to add to their resumes and when they need job experience, they’ll already have it.

College scholarships are also becoming very competitive. Students of all ages have scholarships available for them and many of them become open for registration in the summer.

The main reason reading books and writing long essays shouldn’t be required in the summer is because there is a huge problem with obesity in today’s kids. In the past 30 years, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adding summer assignments that require these chubby children to sit at home and read is only making the problem worse. Instead of reading multiple books, kids could be more active in sports and outdoor activities to stay in shape.