Enjoy summer break: Read

James Clements
Published: July 27, 2008

The two sides of the sign at Farmington Elementary share a common inspirational message, or maybe it’s just a friendly reminder.

One side reads: “Enjoy Summer Break — And Read” while the other says: “Have a Good Summer — And Read.”

While I might argue at this point in my life that each side could leave off the “And,” I get the sentiment from a school-age perspective.

I was thinking recently about my own elementary school days, specifically which of my teachers had been most impactful to me. The answer was obvious. Even though the name escapes me, the teacher I’m most grateful to is the one who taught me to read — because I couldn’t have learned anything from the others without that early skill.

Unfortunately, like all the skills you sharpen each year while in school, reading ability gets dull when you put it away for the summer. And why, each fall, teachers have to spend a few weeks on “training camp” honing their students’ tools again.

So what can be done to keep those minds working? The Culpeper County Library’s Summer Reading Program does a great job of filling in this gap. And while I should have been writing this six weeks ago (the program runs through Aug. 2 and includes Walk-In Story Times tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.), I wanted to acknowledge the program and again highlight the great work done by our local library staff.

I went to a puppet show as part of the program with my son last week. There were at least 50 children there to watch the entertainment, but many were there early and checking out books. The library was alive, and the children were happy to be there. It was great to see, and quite a contrast from the stodgy, stale library I remember visiting when I was their age.

Of course, when I was in elementary school, the closest I came to learning over the summer was playing “pricing games” with Bob Barker every morning. My generation was the first to endure constant brain dystrophy from cable TV (and MTV), and then we blasted any brain cells that survived with Atari and Nintendo.

My high school summers weren’t much better. Ignoring a “required” reading list, I slept on the beach during the day and sold T-shirts to tourists at night. (Ah, the good life!) And in college, I started a short career as a book speculator — paying $20 each for a stack of new books each semester, never opening them, and selling them back for a loss after 12 weeks — that should have soured me on the written word for good.

But something else happened on campus: I discovered that those $20 books shared library shelves with authors like Tom Clancy and Stephen King. And soon I was hooked. After all those years of trying hard to avoid books, these days as soon as I finish one I pick up another. I became a book reader when I’d least expected it and without even realizing it was happening.

That’s what I, like many in my generation, missed when we took an early pass on books. We missed the chance to discover that something that could be so hard, or “boring,” in school could still be such a big part of who we all are as human beings. If we’d known, or been allowed, to read Richard Price and others, maybe we would have passed on Grand Theft Auto?

Probably not, but it’s interesting now to know that books can be a lot more “real” than the reality we’re looking for in television and video games.

Fortunately, many of the next generation of our county’s readers honed their skills this summer at the library. And almost all of them did so without ever realizing they were working on a talent they’ll use the rest of their lives. I’d call that a “Good Summer.”

Congratulations to those who completed the reading program; enjoy the spoils of your success. And thanks again to the library volunteers, staff and “Friends” who make this program possible.

James Clements is a Culpeper resident and independent columnist who appears each Monday.
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