Summer Book Reads

Summers are spent many ways by the teens that are no longer high school students and are about to embark on a new chapter of life, however summer book reads are typically not one of them.  Doing swan dives into an ice cold pool and dibbing the last cheddar bratwurst sounds like the ideal summer to most teens. However, even though that may be their idea to a worthwhile summer, they may still need to make time for the books.  The concept of having summer book reads may come across as a proactive assignment to professors, but not the students.  Summer book reads should be removed from all colleges all together and the reasoning I have to back this argument up is more than convincing.

                I understand that Concordia College is trying to create a common bond for the incoming student body and freshman in specific, but there are other ways to bring the class of 2014 together.  Yes I understand that the summer book read brings everyone together from an educational standpoint as well, but the truth is that the majority of teens and young adults do not want to spend their summer reading.  There are many other ways you could create that bond and give some sort of similarity to everyone with ideas other than reading.  For example everyone in the class of incoming freshman could be required to do some activity. The activity would be the same for everyone.  This would be the same concept as a summer book read, except their heads would not be stuck in books for the period of the year that is supposed to be their time off. 

This idea would give an equal amount of things to talk about in the fall when the students arrive to Concordia, and it would take much less time and commitment from the student body.  There are already a large number of freshmen that come in not having read the book, which only creates problems and hassle for orientation groups, and makes the students feel irrelevant.  If a large portion of the class is already not participating in the summer book reads, why not change things up?

                 The bottom line is that summer is a time for relaxation and preparation for the upcoming new school year by having free time to yourself, and to hang out with family and friends.  You should not be required to use parts of your summer reading, which is something you just spent eight months doing every night.  It could be looked at as laziness from the eyes of professors and those issuing the summer read, but the truth is that it is not laziness, but not a priority. It is a priority in the sense that relaxation and time away from the college scene is necessary.  Everyone is different and for many students, reading is an assignment and not a pass time.  There are many different perspectives to take on this topic but it boils down to the fact that students should have the summer months to “kick back” and get a chance to relax, because reading is not always an enjoyable form of past time to everyone.

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