Meihuan Yu | Summer reading: burden or benefit?

Though the airplanes rolling past Gate B-10 deliver people to their next great escape, my current getaway lies within the covers of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” However, reality keeps pulling me back. 

In the waiting room, the shuffle of magazines and flips of book pages have been replaced by screens, and I can’t help but wonder if this scene will greet me on campus, too. This crisis raises the question: As students abandon reading, should professors enforce mandatory reading assignments, or is there a more effective way to encourage learning over summer break?

Reading is not just a pastime; it’s a vital skill that fosters critical thinking, empathy, and intellectual growth. With the rise of digital distractions, we risk losing the deep engagement and reflective thinking that comes with reading books. 

After interviewing both educators and students heading into their summer vacation, my perspective is reaffirmed: While summer reading is a habit that should be encouraged by faculty, assigning mandatory books would only strip the pleasure from a pastime already fading into disfavor. 

This trend is not new, as Max Cavitch, an English professor at Penn, observed that it has been an ongoing issue for the past 20 years. He says that students “generally read less than before and take less pleasure in reading.” Cavitch attributes this decrease to the fact that “the social and educational expectations for student reading have slipped, and that’s our fault.” Though this is a worrying dilemma, would mandatory summer reading be the best solution? 

Both avid and hesitant readers alike can share horror stories of when the assigned book in high school was so heinously boring that they’d rather watch paint dry. That raises the first problem of assigned summer literature, which is best said by passionate reader and rising College first year Aidan Shaughnessy: “It’s difficult to select a book that can be beneficial to everyone in an entire incoming class … it’s kind of interpreted more as, like, a burden more than anything, not something that you can take the pleasure to enjoy just reading a book you like.” 

Also, to consider this issue from a unique Penn angle, the pre-professional culture on campus may be a catalyst for students to detest mandatory reading. This is an observation noticed by Chenshu Zhou, a Cinema and Media Studies assistant professor at Penn, who notes that “given Penn’s pre-professional culture, it is even harder to imagine the majority of students would take interest in additional academic work during the summer. For the small number of students who are avid readers, they probably wouldn’t need the push.” With many students already pursuing professional experiences over the summer, overloading them with academic work would not help create enthusiasm for reading but rather disdain towards another task waiting to be completed. 

But what else is causing this phenomenon? What is mandatory summer reading fighting against —  besides a busy schedule — for reading to stay relevant in a student’s life? According to Shaughnessy, it’s the most addicting culprit: social media. “Sitting down and reading a book takes a certain level of attention. However, with the rise of short video formatting and TikTok scrolling and having things be perfectly curated for you on social media, it’s just hard to sit down and read a book.” 

After a stressful day at my internship, I would cave (with some shame) and watch Cheeseball Man scarf down a whole bowl of cheeseballs in Central Park rather than try to string together words to form a story on paper.

However, no matter how addicting, frustrating, and nonsensically distracting technology is as a constant in students’ lives, it’s a reality that education has to adjust to. Zhou sees this not just as a challenge but as a nudge towards a future direction: “These are all challenges that we need to consider. The question is whether we insist on traditional modes of teaching or try to adapt to the media-saturated world we now live in.”

Just like how methods of transportation, communication, and manufacturing evolved with developments in technology, shouldn’t education as well? Maybe assigning mandatory summer reading is the horse-and-buggy way of teaching students to enjoy reading, especially when technology and a changing pre-professional culture demand adjustments. 

Cavitch advises his students to read as much as they can — whether it’s to get a head start on their fall courses or for their pleasure and self-education. “Bring a book wherever you go; there’s always some downtime, no matter what you’re doing or where you are.” Instead of forcing students to select a certain time, place, or purpose to read, educators can encourage it as a multifunctional way of learning and entertainment. So next time you’re in an airport waiting room, consider picking up a new book instead of doomscrolling TikTok.

MEIHUAN YU is an incoming Wharton first year from Toronto. Her email is meihuany@wharton.upenn.edu.