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| No | 50% | 254 votes | Total: 506 votes | |
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Add to FavoritesAs a former college president I have to ask, what do you expect from a summer reading program that 4 years of sub-standard high school education failed to accomplish? Too many college freshmen are arriving at the campus as functional illiterates and a 2 month reading assignment isn't going to fix that.
Of course, it all depends on which college we're talking about. The Ivy's don't have that problem because they are more selective and the freshmen class from which they select are usually our best students. On the other hand, their are a great many third and fourth tier private colleges, and a handful of state universities, that are desperate for students and will accept anyone with a check in his or her hand. Believing that a summer reading program will overcome the huge intellectual deficit these students bring with them is foolish.
The problem is that college administrators, particularly admissions officers, don't want to offend the source of their students, our deplorable high school system, and so they simply say nothing. When my college, an engineering school, had a huge number of applicants from several foriegn countries, we took a look at their educational systems. Our decision was to require a BS degree from a college in their home country before we would admit them as freshmen. In other words, they had to start all over again. If we are to turn out college graduates that truly merit their degees, perhaps requiring one year of college prep work might help.
If we are to do anything helpful in the summer before a student enters college, I believe a 60 day, on-campus, preparatory period would be very helpful. During that time, reading skills should be assessed and any deficiencies addressed. If they can't read it should be obvious they can't learn! A full week of learning how to study would also be helpful. Very few high school students are skilled at note taking, or even ascertaining when to take notes. This prep period would also go a long way in helping the freshmen class become aquainted with each other. Dumping them on the campus a week before the regular session begins is meaningless.
Having required summer reading for incoming freshmen is putting a band-aid on a serious wound. Many freshmen are unprepared for college because they lack maturity. That is to be expected and most of them will work through that. On the other hand, expecting students with no intellectual maturity to face a college professor who demands some strenous work in order to get a passing grade is asking too much. The summer could much better be spent having the students spend a few months in a college "boot camp" than reading Gone With The Wind.
Learn more about this author, Ed Dugan.
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Yes
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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