What's the point of required reading?

Michelle Nelson4 said:I honestly feel it’s only natural to sit a child down and show them how to map things out ahead of time. If you're working on a project with a hard deadline, you need a plan so you don't end up underwater. Most people don't just pick that skill up by osmosis, you know? In fact, I actually learned this lesson the hard way just the other day. I was up until midnight finishing something I was supposed to present tomorrow. It wasn't even a matter of not having the time—I actually had three different blocks carved out during my regular office hours specifically to tackle this—but I completely misjudged how long it would take, and then some urgent matter popped up and threw a wrench in everything. So, here I am, staring at a deadline I almost missed...

That said, if I hadn't been planning ahead at all, I wouldn't have finished it by midnight! It's the same thing with homework or studying in general. I’ve always found the attitude of "I don't care, it's the kid's responsibility" to be such a strange way to parent. My colleagues and I actually talk about this quite often at work—discussing which teaching methods actually stick and which ones are total flops. I apply that same logic to my daughter. I help her figure out how to approach her studies, how to schedule her assignments so she isn't rushing, how to prep for an exam, and how to build a study timetable. We talk about note-taking strategies too, like how reviewing material right after school and jotting down some bullet points can make remembering things so much easier. I don't sit there reading books with her or doing the work for her (though if she asks, we might quiz her to see if she's actually got it), but I certainly don't pretend that her schooling is none of my business or leave her to drown without any guidance...

This 🙏
and I feel like school is such a huge part of a kid's life that I just can't bring myself to completely check out.

We’re talking about those typical forum kids who wait until Friday afternoon—or at the absolute latest, Saturday morning—to finally start packing their bags, tackling their homework, finishing up projects, and actually reading their assigned books. They even scramble to get their clean gym clothes ready at the last minute.
😬

Well, mine actually works, but I’m still helping her out with some long-term planning 😂

Same here. He’s still young and thinks he knows it all. 😳

My kid is just wired this way; they're in third grade now and haven't changed one bit.
And honestly, we didn't cause this behavior.😂

I actually managed to get everything wrapped up by Friday evening 😁
because she realized that the weekend is ten times more enjoyable when you don't have a mountain of chores hanging over your head. Everything is officially checked off the list, and now, there is nothing left to do but simply sit back and enjoy ourselves...

My kid isn't exactly a "product of the internet" because I still have to hover over them for basically everything. But honestly? I’ve accepted this is just who they are. It’s like having a child who would leave their own brain sitting on the kitchen counter but somehow manages to pack every single toy they own into their backpack for school. A bit immature, sure. Maybe they'll grow out of it. Who knows.

As for the summer reading list, just break the page count down into daily goals. Give yourselves a few buffer days at the end to actually write the report. Usually, these things get knocked out well before the deadline hits anyway.

She’s just completely checked out when it comes to school 🤷
Honestly, she would probably be more than happy to head back to class with the same kind of attitude she had last Friday—you know, the one where she was practically begging me to just open things for her so she wouldn't have to lift a finger on Sunday.

Are you sure about that? And what if she had to rewrite everything five times just because she didn't have any notebooks?
Do you really think she wouldn't be able to pack her own bag by now?

It’s honestly not even worth my time to play the "what if" game. We’re all just doing what we feel is right in the moment—period. Sure, if you listen to the armchair experts on these forums, they’ll tell you that if we just stop stepping in, the child will eventually figure things out on their own. Start being independent. Start thinking for themselves.
But let’s be real—not everyone is going to step up like that.

No, the prevailing theory on these parenting forums is that you should let a kid own their schoolwork. You stay in the loop, sure—you keep an eye on the situation from the sidelines—but you aren't micromanaging every second. It’s about loosening the reins. You work toward letting them take the driver's seat when it comes to their responsibilities: textbooks, exams, studying, reading assignments. Of course, every kid is wired differently. Not everyone is ready for that freedom at the same pace. Some children need hands-on supervision and strict control for much longer than others. Some are model students from the moment they step into a kindergarten classroom, while others—like mine—will realize they forgot their teddy bear in fourth grade, but somehow manage to remember everything except their geometry set.

And look, if they end up copying a classmate's homework a few times because they left their notebook sitting on the kitchen counter, they’ll eventually start packing their bag more carefully. At least for a little while. 😁

That’s actually a perfectly reasonable theory. If I took it the wrong way, then honestly, that’s on me—I clearly misread the room here. 😁

ANOTHER TOTAL RIP-OFF
'AFTER THIS, OUR SCHOOLS ARE BECOMING A SOCIETY OF DEAD POETS' They’ve officially purged all the living, modern writers from the reading lists, leaving nothing but the old classics. Experts are absolutely losing it.

No more "Hunter in the corn"

Larry Walker24 said:ANOTHER TOTAL RIP-OFF
'AFTER THIS, OUR SCHOOLS ARE BECOMING A SOCIETY OF DEAD POETS' They’ve officially purged all the living, modern writers from the reading lists, leaving nothing but the old classics. Experts are absolutely losing it.

No more "Hunter in the corn"

😲

The Department mentioned that it wasn't actually removed, but they just left it up to the teachers' discretion, I guess. 😁

Anthony Ward6 said:😲

The Department mentioned that it wasn't actually removed, but they just left it up to the teachers' discretion, I guess. 😁

It's not the shirt, it's the neck😉

If teachers are simply too incompetent to be trusted with selecting their own reading lists without having every single title handed down to them by some central authority, then perhaps we should just scrap the entire profession. We might as well just stream standardized lectures in every school nationwide, fully approved by the Department.

Linda Price5 said:If teachers are simply too incompetent to be trusted with selecting their own reading lists without having every single title handed down to them by some central authority, then perhaps we should just scrap the entire profession. We might as well just stream standardized lectures in every school nationwide, fully approved by the Department.

While they're busy making sneakers. 😁 😉

A true veteran of the cause!

I went through all the required reading from her first and second grade years. Well, my daughter read them too, but I went through everything just to make sure she actually caught the point. Honestly, I feel like our school's approach to this stuff is totally backwards compared to what most parents expect. Kasnijensam eventually just backed off because it was obvious she could handle it on her own. Now that she's in 7th grade, I just check in occasionally to see if she's keeping up. But man, her teacher is so disorganized about it. They’ll forget to assign anything at all! One month they had two books assigned, then in December, there wasn't a single one. No yearly list, nothing uploaded to the school portal... it just makes the whole thing feel pointless.

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The Hunter in the Rye is pretty much the only book worth reading that actually hits home for most teens. But honestly, that’s just how the American school system works—ditch anything actually meaningful and stick to junk like Combraille and whatever else...

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