A conversation with YA readers.

Hello All,

Being a non-Christian, I did not go home for Easter weekend. Instead, I went to my friend’s house for a somewhat educational – and disappointing – Easter dinner. Overall, it was your typical family dinner; however, two particular conversations stand out in my mind from the rest…

My friend has two younger cousins. Both are girls, one is 13 (8th grade), the other 16 years-old (10th grade). The girls go to school north of Syracuse (the name has slipped my mind) and are in virtually all honors/AP classes. I was pleased to discover that they are assigned summer reading. The older cousin told me that last summer she was assigned to one book and the second one was her pick (she chose A SEPARATE PEACE). Perhaps two books is unimpressive, but it’s better than not being assigned any, right? To my dismay, the same girl who was assigned summer reading was given by her AP English teacher a list of books at the beginning of the year with the expectation of all students reading 12 books by June. How many books have they read so far? 2. Okay, I’ll be nice and say 3, since they’ve begun a third. This brings me to ask: Are teachers setting the bar too high for themselves? Was his/her goal genuine, but not properly planned in order to execute such an agenda? My friend’s cousin also told me that the way this teacher assess that the reading(s) has/have been done is through a series of questions, on the occasion. Anyone can lie about the work they have done if that’s how it’s being assessed. The only perk to this class is that the students get to choose what they are reading. Besides that, I don’t see how these students are “advancing” any further than non-advanced placement students are.

Secondly, the 13 year-old told me of a book about a young girl during the Holocaust that her class had just completed. After describing the book to me, she said, with all sincerity and honesty, “I know this is the Holocaust, but all they do is complain!” This young lady had no idea of the gravity of the subject. This brings me to ask if there were preliminary exercises, activities or lessons for the students’ understanding of WWII. Did the teacher prompt his/her students at all for this serious topic? I discussed this with a fellow classmate of mine today, and she suggested that the teacher should have shown a connection between then and now by giving examples of present cases of genocide (e.g. Darfur). Between my in-classroom observations and conversations with middle and high school students, kids/teens need prompting, examples, visual aides and relevance to grasp the meaning of a topic.