Why Summer Reading is Beneficial

How often do you find yourself enjoying a book? Summer break is theoretically a time for freedom from academics. Yet the summer reading program, despite being academic, bolsters that sense of freedom and relaxation. 

While some believe that requiring students to read over the summer defeats the purpose of summer break, summer reading is great as students have the freedom to pick a book they’re interested in, and reading is highly beneficial. 

Students need freedom from a school environment and time to relax during the summer, and having a required book to read could negatively impact that. There are many schools in our region in which the educators pick the book students are required to read, failing to offer them much potential to enjoy a book they prefer to read. For example, at AIM Academy, where Haley Hellmann worked as a teacher prior to Abington Friends, she chose one book that every student had to read over the summer. 

Refusing the option of choice from students potentially prevents a student from enjoying their book at all. Furthermore, it also often makes a student much less inclined to even read the book, regardless of their level of interest. 

Students at AFS are lucky to enjoy the freedom of choice. With the summer reading system at our school, students can simply advocate for a book they would like to read and add it to the list of book options for the summer. Last summer, I wanted to read I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jeannette McCurdy.

 I ended up leading a summer reading group for that memoir, and I got to enjoy my summer, reading a book I was interested in. This was refreshing compared to my old school, where I had to look at a list of five books chosen by teachers and struggle to land on something I was remotely intrigued by. The summer reading program at AFS allows me to relish my time off school while reading a book I, my friend, or a peer picked.  

Not only is the summer reading program at AFS especially choice-driven but reading itself is highly beneficial in terms of teenagers’ mental health and performance in school. The action of reading can relax your body as it lowers your heart rate and eases muscle tension. A study at the University of Sussex in 2009 “found that reading can reduce stress by up to 68%.” (National Alliance on Mental Illness). 

The incentive behind the concept of summer reading is “learning loss,” which occurs over the summer when a student is out of an academic environment for so long. Even during the school year, when a student is constantly in an academic environment, reading is beneficial. It improves vocabulary, growth of knowledge, and furthers understanding of ideas. 

Summer reading is a controversial topic, and it shouldn’t be. Although lacking choice can limit students’ willingness and enjoyment of reading, AFS offers students the freedom to pick a book they actually would like to read. Summer reading overall allows students to enjoy their summer break, while simultaneously improving their capacity for understanding, mental health, ability to maintain focus, and knowledge of the world around them.