Update 1:35 PM: There’s a helpful reminder in the comments that our library also offers reading programs for children and for adults. Many thanks for both programs and reminder.
A summer reading program for the Whitewater Schools (even if only for some classes) is a good idea. It’s new for Whitewater, and so one can expect a few objections, here or there. (New as a requirement; Whitewater already has a voluntary summer enrichment program for students, in all sorts of subjects.)
Needless to say, we’ve had summer reading programs, without that name, in many families of the city since its founding. There have always been parents who have encouraged reading all year, including the three months each year without formal schooling.
The question is whether the district should make a summer program part of its curriculum. It should. For the community to be competitive, and meet the standards that Wisconsin and America expect of students, we would do well to embrace a small step, and encourage still more later.
No one would question that a competitive athlete needs to train all year, off-season included; we shouldn’t be surprised that competitive students need to read all year.
Our school year is unlikely to change, but nine-months-on and three-months-off is an artifact of the past that ill-serves a nation hoping that its children will be at the forefront of global accomplishment. We’re an agricultural community and state, but we are no longer an agrarian society. It’s reasonable for the district to expect that designated grades will be reading all year, and be evaluated on assigned books.
If anything, there should be more of this.
Please remember that the Library offers a reading program too, for both kids and adults!
One can only hope that this is the first in a series of steps that will lead to year-round school. Then students and educators can avoid the “start-up” review that happens each year.
I think the bigger questions right now are; how will the program be managed and how will the students be held accountable for the work? If not addressed carefully, rather than bring the achievement level of all students up, this act will only serve to widen the achievement gap – an issue that already plagues our schools.