Ever since I first taught Honors English at our school, I’ve assigned a summer reading assignment. Beyond being a tradition or an assignment, I still believe summer reading is a healthy, useful routine. So many voices complain about “learning loss” during the summer months (and I agree, there is likely to be some, but not nearly enough so that I would ever, ever advocate for eliminating summer break. It may be an anachronism from an agrarian age of America, but the school year is far too packed with stresses for kids and adults both. Summer break is a vital must.). One way to combat any learning loss is to stay with the habit. You want to stay in shape? Keep doing your fitness. You want to stop gaining weight? Keep active and quit eating the slouchy foods. You want to stay in the top-tier brackets of your online competitive games, or among the top players of your sport? Keep playing, keep training, stay with it.

I say this as a recitivist. I picked up jogging in high school, then quit when I began college and promptly gained weight. I picked up weightlifting in late college, then quit when I became a dad and teacher and gained even more weight. I know what it’s like to backslide, what it’s like to feel super sore from those first workouts returning to the gym. I also know what it’s like to have been a constant reader in high school and college, only to wane with the increasing activity of my phone. Putting the phone away, getting some reading glasses (now that I’m mid-40s), and hanging daily with my reader friends has brought me back from the edge. I know what it is to slip. And I know what it means to stay in shape.

This summer my sophs were assigned a new book, one I’d never taught before. I considered going back to an old faithful like Life of Pi or The Alchemist, but I needed something new for this summer too. The mind and the heart and the life experience needed the stretch. So I picked Zevin’s novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

I anticipated a possible parent or student unhappy with the book. I did not anticipate so many parents or students unhappy with the novel. It really drove home the direction society has taken. But of course, parents should be concerned with what their students are learning in school these days. (And how wonderful that these parents aren’t blind to that!) As the teacher, my biggest concern is that I don’t want my students (or their families) flinching from a good read or good conversations. Zevin’s book has some cussers in it, and there is the scenario of the inappropriate teacher-student relationship. But Zevin doesn’t want us to applaud it. Zevin goes beyond it and gives us a book about relationships, videogames, childhood connections that drive our future adult selves, about grief, and innovation, and ambition.

Today, I’m spending the episode walking my upcoming students through my process: how does Crockett approach a task like the summer reading assignment? How would he go through the first 50 pages? What does he annotate, and where does his thinking lead him?

It’s still summer break (for at least a week or two, at any rate), but today I’m teaching again. Also: go watch the new Superman movie. You will feel really awesome about yourself and probably have the best afternoon ever after it.

You can find With Honors

on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0881bUWWdgkBdGzHlPNToi?si=1HS8tQGXRyOgn1h5bs2pTg

on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/with-honors/id1797115480

on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCweufFHJbylu4tR598SDj5w

Also, throw some love at our brother podcast with Coach Haston, A Deadman’s Books. He’s on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/4HtulwbO10pOjV5hbdWOty?si=I5Tt07unQJWVhaFVsInP8A and Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-deadmans-books/id1795582942

This episode features excerpts from the Superman theme by John Williams, retro arcade music, and inspiring piano music by BlackTrendMusic, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jcrock.substack.com