Summer study

Webster's Dictionary defines vacation as a "suspension of work or study for another activity devoted to leisure." Could schools please pay attention to this definition? When teachers assign summer homework, they act hypocritically. Mark Twain once wrote, "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." No one could have written a better summer creed.

When the dreaded bell rings for the last time, teens rush outside with the thought of simply "getting away." It seems, however, with summer homework clamps a ball and chain on our ankles just as we zoom out of our familiar prisons.

During summer, teens are expected to relax and rejuvenate for the strenuous year ahead. Not surprisingly, sleeping is a lot like summer vacation. Both are essential to a healthy body, and the more you lose of either, the more you are fatigued. Summer homework is like that big science fair project you waited to start the night before. First of all, you show up the next day or year extremely tired with those little black bags drooping from your eyes. Second, you save both for the last day. I can't speak for every teen in Spokane (I think I will anyway, however), but teens always save work for the last possible moment. Doesn't this undermine education and learning? Sure it does. So my first reason for saying "X-nay" to summer homework is the fact that few will do more than simply read "words" the night or day before. Summer homework simply creates one more cram session for teens, which we all know "learns us" so well.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that learning should not be an entree on the summer menu. I am just pointing out that summer should be a time for doing what you crave most (illegal activities not included). If you want to read a book, do it; more power to you. If you want to hang out at the beach, do it; don't forget the sunscreen. If you want to TP and egg my house, don't do it; I'll call the police. You should not have to fret about reading "Moby Dick" when you are chilling on a boat with your friends. It's hard to enjoy those summer ice cream cones when there is a huge reading list looming over your head like a giant piano from a 50-story building.

The only argument for that looming piano, however, is keeping our brains alive and fine tuned. Besides saving all the drudgery for the last minute, which undermines the reason for the work in the first place, there needs to be a point in teens' lives when learning is intrinsically motivated. Teachers and parents simply need to allow teens to decide for themselves what's best.

Whether or not teens decide to read and prepare for the upcoming school year, as an ace student would, or sit around playing Nintendo until their fingers turn blue and sleeping in until 3, the summer is theirs and theirs alone. Now if you excuse me, I have some napping to do.

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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