My school always assigned “summer reading” which was usually about three books. In a typical summer, one or two were something “OK” that wasn’t too bad to read but not one I would have chosen voluntarily, and one was something GAWDAWFUL that led me to ban its author from ever being voluntarily read by me for life (e.g. Mary Renault and her totally unrelatable stories set in the Mummy ages). In a GOOD summer, there were TWO good books in addition to the requisite “gawdawful” one. My school kept us so loaded with homework during the school year it was literally like two full school days every day – they literally expected you to spend at as much time as a class period on doing homework for each class each night. Consequently, I was pretty rebellious when it came to their infringement on my VACATION time. Oh, I did the summer reading, all right – I could honestly say I did it – but I went through it quickly and at the very beginning of vacation in a few days so as to not have it hanging over my neck. By the time school started in the fall I had forgotten most of it and consequently had usually had far less than desirable grades on the summer reading tests….but since that was only one test out of dozens and I applied myself with honor-roll results throughout the entire duration of the school year, it was a small price to pay and well worth it. School and work are important, but vacation time is too – and I defended my vacation and free time as vigorously then as I still do to this day.
My school always assigned “summer reading” which was usually about three books. In a typical summer, one or two were something “OK” that wasn’t too bad to read but not one I would have chosen voluntarily, and one was something GAWDAWFUL that led me to ban its author from ever being voluntarily read by me for life (e.g. Mary Renault and her totally unrelatable stories set in the Mummy ages). In a GOOD summer, there were TWO good books in addition to the requisite “gawdawful” one. My school kept us so loaded with homework during the school year it was literally like two full school days every day – they literally expected you to spend at as much time as a class period on doing homework for each class each night. Consequently, I was pretty rebellious when it came to their infringement on my VACATION time. Oh, I did the summer reading, all right – I could honestly say I did it – but I went through it quickly and at the very beginning of vacation in a few days so as to not have it hanging over my neck. By the time school started in the fall I had forgotten most of it and consequently had usually had far less than desirable grades on the summer reading tests….but since that was only one test out of dozens and I applied myself with honor-roll results throughout the entire duration of the school year, it was a small price to pay and well worth it. School and work are important, but vacation time is too – and I defended my vacation and free time as vigorously then as I still do to this day.