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Should colleges require summer reading of incoming freshmen?
Results so far:
| No | 50% | 308 votes | Total: 615 votes | |
| Yes | 50% | 307 votes |
No
by Paola Fanutti
Created on: February 04, 2008
As someone who holds two undergraduate degrees in entirely separate disciplines, I can honestly state that mandatory summer reading for incoming freshmen is actually counter-productive to their education.
Many have already mentioned that summer is a working period for many students and this is certainly a valid point. Most students come from middle class or lower income families, and with average tuition fee increases of 10 to 15% in the past two years, working during the summer is very important. Many hard-working students simply do not have the time for summer reading, and do not need the additional stress. However, since 72% of American college students also work during the academic year, their need to work is not the only reason why summer reading should not be mandatory.
There are lots of other reasons why mandatory summer reading is futile, especially for incoming college freshmen.
Students require the benefit of instruction and guidance to supplement their reading. In most academic disciplines, students require instruction and explanation in order to properly understand course material. Reading a text without prior introduction to the subject matter is pointless.
Students often 'course shop' at the beginning of the academic year. Freshmen students often decide to switch courses during the summer, dropping some and taking on others. Mandating summer reading would require some students to read (or purchase) books that they might not use. Furthermore, students who take on additional courses will find themselves at an unnecessary disadvantage during the first week of classes, if they did not prepare themselves with the appropriate 'summer reading.'
Furthermore, all students, freshmen especially, require a syllabus that clearly explains the course evaluation and themes to be studied, before plunging into course material. A text can be read from a variety of historical, critical, psychological and sociological perspectives. If a student does not slant his or her reading appropriately, he or she will have to re-read the text when the course officially commences.
Secondary school and college are also two completely different learning environments. Attending college is somewhat of a rite of passage for young people. It is place where they will sharpen imperative critical thinking, reading and writing skills. But honing these skills can take considerable time. Freshmen often perform poorly during the first few months of college level study, since they must shake off many of their secondary school habits and form new ones. Freshmen need time to adjust to a multidisciplinary and independent learning environment. During the summer, incoming freshmen need to prepare themselves psychologically for college life and requiring summer reading is additional pressure on an already nervous freshman.
Lastly, many students attend post secondary institutions far from home, even in other countries, and these students have to move, adapt to a new city and culture or find housing during the summer. Mandating summer reading for these students simply isn't fair.
While making reading lists available to students during the summer is a useful possibility, mandating that students actually read course material potentially defeats the purpose of instruction. While college level study rightfully requires a great deal of independent work, do not students pay high tuition fees to be taught by P.H.D graduates? Surely, students should at least be able to approach a professor with questions or concerns during the course of their reading.
But where will professors be during the summer while students have questions about their reading? Probably at the beach or on holiday, exactly where most students would want to be in warm weather.
Learn more about this author, Paola Fanutti.
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Yes
by Chetachi Egwu
Created on: July 22, 2007
As a college professor and seemingly lifelong student, I have noticed a sharp decline in the level of writing proficiency of not only incoming freshman, but of college students in general. The disconnect is not just a because the students write poorly; the amount of reading students engage in that is unrelated to class has dropped significantly.
Any instructor can relay that it is a huge challenge to persuade students to read what is assigned in class, let alone to take on extra reading. Proficiency and consistency in reading, however, is directly correlated to proficiency and consistency in writing: bottom line, many incoming freshman are poor writers because they do not read often enough. I can not begin to account for how often I have to ask students "Did you honestly read this paper before you handed this to me?" Their answers are usually a very weak "yeah" or to hang their heads in mock shame, with a sheepish grin, and answer "no, but I used spell check".
To further solidify this argument, we need to come back to the high school curriculum. In examining the U.S. public school system, it is obvious that there is often a lack of resources and manpower that can cultivate a student who is adequately prepared for college. There are advanced placement classes, yet not every student accepted into college has taken AP English. So let us posit that a student takes a standard, departmental English course and passes with a C. This is the same student that has been accepted to a degree-granting program at someone's college for fall admission. Without getting a head start, are we seriously to believe that this student will somehow morph into Rudyard Kipling in a fourteen-week freshman English course? Nonsense. By the way, these are the same students, that because of their shaky start, may have trouble writing intelligible presentations, articles, press releases...fill in the blank with your discipline of choice. Once students reach me at higher levels, I need to spend time educating them mainly about issues and phenomena within our field, not showing writing skills that frankly should have been developed earlier.
So what is the solution? Summer reading selections are one option. While they may not be a panacea for a student with years of inadequate preparation, they can help to bridge the huge gap and expectations between high school and college level work. Students often leave high school thinking "piece of cake!" and then return home the first day of class in bewilderment, or frustrated because of the C+ grade they earned on a paper they believed to be worth an A! No one is suggesting a list that will have students drowning in work; two, possibly three titles to set the groundwork for the coming semester is probably sufficient.
At the end of the day, we all need to do more to improve student performance: High schools must revise the current curriculum to ensure that students are prepared to smoothly transition into higher education, no matter what the demographics of their particular school district may be. College faculty and administrators, we need to put systems in place to generate contact with the high schools our applicants are coming from, so that the reading lists are available to the 12th grade teachers. From there, they can incorporate the material in some way within their lessons. We also need to pick up where they left off, and ensure that students are both proficient readers and writers; remember, an institution is only as strong as its graduates. Students, your success or failure ultimately lies with you. Outside forces can only do so much, and you can only feign to be knowledgeable for so long; eventually "fraud" is always discovered. Whether reading lists become a standard practice or not, take the initiative and do so anyway...your writing will thank you for it.
Learn more about this author, Chetachi Egwu.
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