DebateAre Assigned Summer Reading Lists Obsolete?

YES
NORMA GLOCK has been a librarian in the Columbus, Montana, school system for 14 years, serving at all grade levels. She's now working at Columbus High School. Glock is the president of the Columbus Education Association.

Don't get me wrong, as a high school librarian in a small rural town in Montana, I am not opposed to summer reading. It's my job to recommend books to students, whether in the summer or during the school year.

My opposition is to circulating a pre-selected list of books for an age or grade level.

I recently searched the Web on summer reading lists for 11th and 12th graders. The first hit came up with a list that featured a book that one seventh grader in my school enjoyed this year.

There are just too many diverse interests, too many books, and too many different formats to even suggest a summer reading list that's right for one group.

Too Many Diverse Interests

"Every book, its reader." That's an old law of library science. It is presumptuous on our part to say that a list of 10, 50, or even 500 books would satisfy the many different interests students have.

And, as my first Web hit above showed, when we start dividing the assigned lists into age groups, we are missing the boat.

One example: I have not seen a summer reading list for high schoolers that recommends any picture books. Summertime should be a time of relaxation. Why not have lists of picture books for 12th graders to read in the summertime?

Too Many Books

The reading lists I've examined on the Web are generally books from well-known publishing houses, and were compiled from "Best Books" or award book lists. Some very good literature published by small independent presses never makes it to these lists and are not, as a result, ever hyped to schools or libraries. Some of the "special interest" books published by these companies might be just the books for certain readers.

Too Many Different Formats

The Internet has made the notion of a summer reading list obsolete, said one college professor in 1995. I would not be so quick to place the blame on the Internet, but a brief look at Publishers Weekly for November 20 showed that 35 percent of the articles dealt with e-books, a format that is getting lots of attention from the book industry.

With the newly popular hand-held personal organizers, such as the PalmPilot, students can download a book from a virtual library and read at the beach, in the bath, or anywhere they could read a print book.

This new technology has attractive interactive features. Many e-books are not available in print. They are virtually (pun intended) ignored on summer reading lists.

I know there's opposition to suggesting students watch TV or videos, but there are some excellent programs on TV and some well-produced videos on the market. Some students may prefer these formats. Perhaps we should assign summer "viewing lists." That makes as much sense to me as a "reading list."

If schools have done a good job teaching critical thinking skills, they should allow students to choose from the myriad of books they find in the local library and bookstores, or exchange books with friends. These are better alternatives than assigned summer reading lists.

NO
MIKE BACON has taught English for 23 years at East Kentwood High School in Kentwood, Michigan. This year, he's enjoying teaching a new class in video production. Bacon is the secretary of the Kentwood Education Association.

This question is part of the larger debate on process versus product, which in teaching has become a debate over whether to teach thinking and problem-solving (process), or content such as physics and literature (product). Obviously, the debate has not been won; it continues. The synergy between the two sides probably fuels the controversy.

On one side, we have those who claim that reading lists should not be used because they are not useful or meaningful. These people say teachers should simply wait for students to come into contact with books and, through some serendipitous process, find just the right book to read. They also seem to suggest that books seek out readers, as if these pages of print have an urge to communicate.

We are led to believe that books should be experienced promiscuously, encountered at random, read at one's leisure, and left behind as readers seek out their next encounter. In this position, books take on a nondescript identity, displaying nothing more important than their immediate availability and attraction.

On the other side, we have those who claim that reading lists are absolutely essential guides to the canon of literature that must be read for one to be considered an educated person. In this view, teachers provide the list of books to be read and insist that only these books are worth reading.

This position resembles an arranged marriage between a bride and groom who never meet before the wedding ceremony.

Readers are expected to learn specific knowledge from a specific source, and that knowledge would be considered their education. We can imagine the most devastating and narrow-minded list--one with just one title

However, good teachers know that they must maintain a balanced approach for their myriad students.

Writers are the observers, the recorders, and the interpreters of being human, and some are better than others. Teachers should provide a summer list to begin the learning and then encourage their students to search out more information from movies, television, radio, and CDs, as well as comic books, magazines, newspapers, and more.

Good teachers recognize that there is a canon of literature containing some of the best and most profound expressions of thought, and that these readings can be supplemented by additional readings.

Most of us maintain reading lists all the time. We use them to guide our reading and to purchase books as gifts for others.

We should realize that a hit-or-miss approach to reading can be fun and exciting, but we should also realize that a guided list for reading can be more productive.

With our curriculum and high stakes tests, educators must rely on a balanced, focused approach. Summer reading lists are not obsolete. They are essential.

But the debate between process and product, for and against summer reading lists, will continue, and thank goodness.

We couldn't become educated by following just one of the extremes. Learning would not be interesting.