"F" SUMMER READING LISTS ! ! !

My son and I go to the same school each day (when school is in session). He attends as a student, and I as a teacher. After a very (and I mean Very) stressful school year for both of us, summer couldn't have gotten here quickly enough.  We wasted no time developing our daily routine. We'd stay up late, and sleep in even later. Then, we'd  awake, eat breakfast, watch a t.v. show then lay down again for a quick nap. The sloth life wasn't bad at all, except when the headaches would come for having stayed in bed soo long. That was easily remedied by doing some morning chores, and grabbing a snack to munch on while we the SAT UP to watch more t.v. or surf the internet for ungodly long stretches of time.

Now, before you give me the bad parent of the month honors, we did do more than lounge all day (sometimes). You see, after lunch there was usually an activity to do-swimming, park playdates, table games, reading and math workbooks, or other free, or near free activities. And, for the first time in years I was able to read books that I like.

 You see, I usually spent my summers past running a mini daycamp from my home, or tutoring neighborhood children (for pay of course). My more relaxed, less structured summer really afforded me the chance to reawaken my love for reading. And read I have done! Sometimes I'd stay up to 4 in the morning often tuning out all media, and my kids too as I got totally engrossed in some drama queen's fictional life story. You see, when I have a good book, only two things can tear we away from it; a headache, or hunger. My two kids, finally tired of being tuned out one time too many, decided if they can't beat it, they'd join me. So, the next time we made a trip to the library or bookstore, I noticed they spent A LOT MORE time trying to pick more books they could get into. They did a lot more browsing, and reading the first few pages (or chapters) of a book before settling down on one. And, I noticed they were choosing much longer books than the usual short reads they usually haphazardly deshelved just to appease the minimum household reading requirements.

My 6th grader read some really good stuff. He read Barak Obama's "Dreams From My Father", "Think Big", by Dr. Ben Carson, and some children's books. Unfortunately, not one of those books was on the shcool's mandatory summer reading list. You see, all the schools in our district require that middle school students read atleast 3-5 books from the summer reading list, and do the book report summary with it. The booklist and report form were mailed to the parents along with the final report card after school was  out. This assignment must be turned in to their new reading teacher during the first 3 days of school, and shockingly, this is a graded assignment too.

I guess my son will be getting a zero right out of the gate because he hasn't read any of their books, and I'm certainly not going to pressure him to do so. You see, as an "eduparent", meaning I am an educator as well as a parent, I only have a few main concerns when it comes to this whole summer reading thing. 

1. That my child reads each day.

2. That he reads both fiction and non-fiction works.

3. That he sees reading as desireable, and not a chore.

4. That atleast half of what he reads is written at or above his independent reading level.

With all these criteria being met, why should it matter that he read self selected books, instead of the districts required reading?

And does anyone else see a problem with a school dictating how he spends his summer, and then having the nerve to give academic punishment for actually using summer vacation to....vacation!?   To me, this is like giving a teacher a stack of required professional reading to be done only while school is out,  and saying their pay will be docked if a composition is not written on each one and turned in by the first days of pre-planning.  Hell, I'd be calling my local news media and my educator's association to protest, contest, and detest such dictatorship. Needless to say, I think this practice is intrusive, and very ballsy. Parents can't tell teachers what they ought to do during their summer vacations, muchless punish them for not doing it. So I don't think it's right for teachers to penalize a student for work not done during their summer vacation.

Am I missing something here? You see, it's practices like this that make me feel like a twisted teacher. It's this,  and other nonsense that has made me question if I am too inexperienced, or in fact, too enlightened to keep teaching in the Public School System. I guess I'm leaving now to go google what the "experts" have to say. And for now, my son accepts that he'll have an "F" for the the summer reading list assignment. My response- "F" to you too reading teacher!