Asking Students For An Essay About Their Summer Is A Mistake

With the start of the new school year, many children become overwhelmed and feel great anxiety and anguish. Some go to school for the first time, others start a new cycle, change schools or classmates, and this always becomes a source of intense concern.

In addition, there is an old custom, which is still repeated in many schools, which can be highly stressful for some students : the typical summer summary writing.

What might seem, after the months of separation, a fun activity to break the ice between peers, for some children can turn out to be a real ordeal. In my query this is a topic that appears with some frequency. Not only children and adolescents tell me about this dire experience, but many adults also evoke these essays as some of the worst moments of their school life.

The negative effect of harmful comparisons

This type of writing involves a comparison between the lifestyles, social and economic status of families. In addition, although not all children do, some students can use these words to brag about their family’s standard of living, compare themselves or make fun of others whom they consider inferior.

The opposite may also be the case, as happened to Andrés who, after telling in his writing that he had visited Disney World in Orlando, received a beating in the bathroom by some classmates.

The negative effect, for many children, of this type of activity can manifest itself in several ways:

• Feeling of sadness. If they haven’t done anything special on their vacation, they may feel sorry to see how much fun their other colleagues have had. For example, Pablo had spent a wonderful summer at his grandparents’ country house, playing with his cousins ​​and swimming in the pool, but when he compared his experience with that of other children who had visited EuroDisney or the Harry Potter filming studios , his summer was dwarfed and, almost ridiculous, from his point of view as a child.
• Need to make up reality. Some children do not have a summer as idyllic as their peers and are forced to make up stories so as not to look bad in front of the whole class.
• Frustration. There are children who do not even have the possibility of leaving the neighborhood in which they live. Listening to their colleagues talking about beaches, swimming pools or trips can be highly frustrating for them.

To explain this feeling I will tell you the case of Alejandra. Her parents were showmen and the girl spent her summers from town to town, helping her parents with their work. At the beginning of the course, she did not want to relate anything she had done during the summer so as not to look bad in front of her classmates.

He felt that he had to falsify reality and emphasize certain positive aspects, while hiding the negative part of his summer. He said, then, that he had spent his holidays on the beaches of Benidorm. This was not entirely false, as he had been to Benidorm, but not in the way his companions might think.

Healthier Alternatives to Summer Writing

If the curricular objective is for students to write and write, they can look for other reasons that are more neutral and pleasant for them. They can, for example, be asked to write about topics that they like and are passionate about.

They can write an essay about their pets, about their favorite movie, or about a hobby they have. This provides a more positive reason to write about and avoids unnecessary and damaging comparisons between students.