The Absurdity of AP Summer Assignments by Taylor Epstein

Does anyone enjoy spending vacation time completing projects and immense amounts of homework?  Does anyone enjoy missing out on parties, on visiting relatives, and going on vacation to do busywork, that, for the most part, is never even looked at or graded?   Does anyone actually retain all or any of the information “learned” from summer assignments, or is it rushed to completion because you are not allowed out until it is done?

If any young child was asked if he or she likes school, most would say yes.  As we grow older, though, we begin to lose interest in going to school and view it mainly as a cause of stress.  What could be the reason for this?  Summer assignments and homework over holiday breaks are a likely cause.  How many of us have been in a similar situation? It’s summer vacation and there are many things to do such as Drivers Ed, multiple travel sports teams, camp, and vacation.  On top of that, obviously most would want time to go to the beach, hang out with friends, and visit relatives.

I was in this situation.  Although I was able to complete all of these things, I barely had any time to myself.  I had much unnecessary added stress due to three AP summer assignments that I knew had to be completed.  We could be using our summer breaks proactively by getting a job to learning responsibilities. We could be traveling the world to see how others live.  Doing these things would be much more beneficial, but instead our breaks are spent inactively, mostly indoors, doing homework.  It’s ironic that it’s called summer break considering that it is almost the opposite.  The work assigned withholds us from actually taking a break or going on vacation.  

Some may say that summer work is necessary to complete the coursework for the year, especially in AP classes.  But Mrs. Colapinto, who teaches AB and BC Calculus, one of the hardest courses in the school, does not assign summer homework.  When asked why, she says, “I want to give the kids a break to enjoy their summer before they are given such large amounts of work when they come back to school.”

Most of the time, summer work consists of busywork to help students recall information from previous years.  AP students obviously performed well in that subject in years past, so why is it given to us?  Why not the students who may need it most?  It is unfair to us, especially when the teachers do not look at or grade most of the work that we put many hours into completing.  Many claim that they have other things to do or grade. Well, we had other, useful things we could have done too.  Instead, we were good students that completed useless assignments.

And when the summer assignments actually contain new information, most students do not retain it by the time they need to use it.  The information has to be reviewed in class, which ends up taking the same amount of time as learning it without the summer work would be.

Many who are against summer assignments would say, don’t do it.  Just accept the consequences.  This is not possible for most AP students.  This is not possible because most of us care too much and take pride in our work.  Accepting a zero is not an option.  It is also not possible to enjoy summer and try to complete the summer assignment once school starts as regular homework.  This is not possible because it contains such a large amount of work.   Students would get almost no sleep if we tried to complete all of the work in a couple of nights along with regular homework and extracurricular activities.

Giving students this much work instead of letting them enjoy summer will create students who resent school.  Once students resent school, they put in less effort and do not perform as well.  We should return to school after summer refreshed and ready to learn, not exhausted and lacking motivation.