By Caroline Ross
As the summer comes to an end, students begin to take advantage of their last work free days. But as their minds start to return into school mode, they then realize that those last few days must be spent doing their summer work—the work they have strategically avoided up until that very moment. Upperclassmen that are gearing up for AP classes have to do more than just buying a brand new notebook and a set of new pens. Packets and papers pile up, and long tireless hours begin as students hunch over their work, rushing to complete it before the first day of school. But after all the hours spent, students begin to wonder, is this really worth it?
Summer work is true to its name in the aspect that it is truly work. With students cramming and rushing to complete work that could be learned in school, summer assignments present themselves not only as unnecessary but also as a spoiler of what summer should truly be like. The underclassmen dread the summer of junior year, as many students will fall victim to the group who will be drowning in summer work as a result of procrastination, Senior Teresa Cannone, who is taking AP Biology said, “For the bookwork I completely procrastinated and I regretted it completely. I stared the bookwork the week before school started and was swamped with work.”
Summer should not be spent trapped in a room with endless amounts of summer work. Olivia Mendes, a junior taking AP European History, experienced this problem head on. “I basically just locked myself in my room and didn’t come out until I had finished what I’d wanted to accomplish that day, ” said Mendes.
The amount of time put into completing the assignments revealed one of the flaws-the work was too much and overall questionable. “If I could change one thing about summer assignments, it would be to make the work more precise and less vague, especially because the person doing the work has not been accustomed to a workload for at least a few weeks.” said sophomore Josh Lopez, when asked if he would change anything about his own summer work for AP Economics.
Even though students wonder why the summer work given to them is so vague, teachers have their own reasons for assigning summer work, which they believe, to be anything far from vague. “I obviously don’t think the summer assignment is vague.  I am always available during the summer via email to answer student questions,” said Ms. Coleman, an AP English Language teacher. Yes, during the summer a student does have access to a teacher’s email. Yet, even in a media driven world, students still realize that a face-to-face session with a teacher will benefit the student in the long run. Suppose a student finishes their summer work but guessed on more than half of the questions, what would be the point? The student did not gain any more knowledge of the subject, so why not teach it in school where they could truly understand it?
As students begin to question the validity of summer work, they also begin to ponder the real motive of why summer work is given and why it is not simply taught in school. Mendes said, “I would rather learn the material during school. There is a reason why we have summer vacation, and it’s not to do more work!” While a minority may believe summer work is best done outside school walls, many benefits present themselves with the opportunity of doing the work in school.
A summer without work has now become a rare occasion for all upperclassman. Now, they look back on their old summers wishing they could take advantage of having work free days and being able to feel the warmth of summer. A summer without procrastination, rushing, and all nighters is now the true dream of all students making summer work the enemy.