Imagine taking a two week vacation from work after working extra hard for those vacation days; now imagine having to work during those hard earned vacation days. Now consider that on a larger scale of working roughly nine to eight months for three to two months of break, this is school. In Generic_City depending on the class there may or may not be a summer assignment, for example, most math classes require you to do a review packet or start the first unit, as was the case for statistics. English classes usually require you to read at least one book, and depending on what level English class there may be an analysis. Personal experience and differing personal conditions prove that students should not be required to complete summer assignments whether they're teacher or student designed.

Personal experience has shown me that summer assignments are no where near as effective as teachers believe. As someone who has both done it and seen it happen a lot, I know for a fact that the mass majority of students don't truthfully complete the assignments themselves. They'll either wait for one person to complete it and as soon as one completed assignment is sent to someone it might as well been sent to all since each grade is pretty well connected and the use of phones makes cheating easier. The other way students will cheat is by using the internet; some assignments are one Google search away from having the entire answer key. With the mass cheating summer assignments become nothing more than a nuisance to both the students and teachers who have to read and grade the same work. Another reason I believe there shouldn't be summer assignments is because it's unfair to the students that work their butts of during the school year to have to then complete more work during their break. The school year is long but some students grind out the whole year making the most out of their education while other burn out. To these students summer assignments are the equivalent of unpaid working hours. Not to mention the long school year has more than enough time to account for review.

People's differing conditions during the summer further enforce the unimportant nature of summer assignments. In my case I was in Generic_City all summer last year and spent a lot of time out in the rural areas. It was literally impossible for me to complete any of my assignments without internet. I needed to read and take notes on the first chapter of Statistics from scanned textbook pages and had a precalculus packet to complete. This wouldn't have been a problem for me if I had access to a working printer or WiFi. Sadly I had neither so I ended up having to do all my summer work in the three days I had from when I came back from Generic_City to when I had school. This was very unpleasant since I stayed home those three days completing my assignments and by the time I got back to school it had felt like I didn't even have a break. Another reason that there shouldn't be summer assignments is because some students work during the summer. My friend Generic_Name works with his dad's masonry company during the summer to help him cut cost and increase productivity. Whether it's because they're helping their parents or investing in their own future; students time becomes more costly during the summer and the benefits of summer assignments comes no where near the cost.

Some teachers may argue that their work is impossible to cheat on because of xyz or that if students don't work on something during the summer or they'll forget everything they learned. To this I say that teachers don't give students enough credit and that once something has been taught it should be solid in a student mind otherwise it wasn't taught correctly. I've seen some crafty ways students try to get by an assignment that's hard to cheat on and if summer assignments where student designed this would only get worse. Some students are very determined to not do their assignments the "correct" way; I've seen people spend more energy trying to cheat than they would have if they had done their assignment properly. Others may also argue that to a student school is the most important priority they have; so instead of working to help keep their family fed they should be reviewing algebra II. This is absolute blaspheme although I agree that education is important it is ultimately up to the student to weigh their choices, and make the best decision for themselves. I am 90% confident that summer assignments don't fall within most students priority list.

Due to differing levels of importance and my own personal experiences students should not have to complete summer assignments whether they're teacher or student designed. For the students in the past who've lost precious time from assignments where instead they could have been working, relaxing, or spending time with friends and can no longer do these things have had wrong done by them. For future students that'll find summer assignments as an even larger nuisance since it's no longer detrimental that students learn/memorize since almost everything is going to be at their finger tips instead their goal will be application. It is largely important that schools eliminate the requirement for summer assignments.