It's the last day of school and students are excited for their summer break to finally start. They're daydreaming about making memorable memories with their friends and going on relaxing vacations. However, minutes before the last bell, they're handed packets of work and projects that need to be completed for the next school year. There goes their happiness and all of their summer plans. Not only are these assignments pointless, but they also take up way too much time in the summer, which is supposed to be a break. But, what if they were able to choose their own projects to do over the summer? Summer projects should be student designed as it allows students to employ their creativity and develop new ideas.

Summer assignments should be outlets for students to display their creativity. This creativity allows students to apply these projects to their own lives, which in turn allows them to learn effectively. Take for example, a science project I had to do my freshman year of high school. My teacher had given us a criteria for what the basis of the project should be about, but the experiment itself was up to us to decide. I decided my topic would be testing different acidic liquids on the moldiness of strawberries because strawberries were my favorite fruit. Not only was I able to learn about science, such as determining pH levels and how acids work to combat mold, but I was also able to learn something I could apply to my own life. I still use the results of this experiment to this day; squeezing lemon juice on strawberries to reduce any possibility of mold. I was more engaged in the experiment and excited to actually do the procedure solely because of the freedom I had to choose what I wanted to do. This allowed the experiment to feel not like a summer assignment, but something I was doing for fun instead. Additionally, this creativity enables students to become more interested in their projects. Without interest, students are doing assignments just to complete them instead of learning from them. Essentially, this is necessary to keep students engaged and actively learning during the summer, which is the whole purpose of these summer projects.

Furthermore, student designed projects would enable children to establish new ideas and skills. For instance, when students are assigned to write essays on a book over the summer, they essentially just read a summary and think of basic ideas to answer the prompt. Instead, if they were given the freedom to choose their own books to write essays on, they would be more engaged in the project. This would make them think outside of the box which in turn would help them develop new ideas. Last, summer I was given the freedom to read any 20th century book I wanted, and write an essay on an essential question that I created myself. I had chosen the book

Pudding Head Wilson by Mark Twain and my essential question was "Are our characteristics based more on nature or nurture?". Not only, did I enjoy reading the book I had chosen but I was also able to learn so many new things about the whole nature vs nurture debate that I hadn't known. I had previously thought our characteristics were a mixture of both, but after researching and writing this paper, I changed my view. My research also led me to learning about psychology and because of this I decided I wanted to major in this topic in college. I would not have been able to come to this decision if I had not been able to choose this book. Additionally, I was able to reinforce critical thinking skills while writing my paper. If students were given this freedom to choose their projects, they would be able to expand their knowledge rather than just utilizing basic information to just complete the task.

While many argue that teacher sets are more structured and standardized so students could be better prepared for the upcoming school year, this is very false. When teachers assign projects to do over the summer, students usually wait until the day before school starts to even look at these assignments. They then decide to just search up the project online hoping to find answers and ideas that they could use as their own. Primarily this disregards the whole purpose of the summer projects:kids continuing to learn during their break. Students aren't actively learning anything throughout their break as they are just doing the project the day before school starts. Also, the projects assigned by teachers are usually on topics that are very boring and students don't want to put any effort into them. These projects are on topics that students can't even apply to their everyday lives so they see no purpose in doing them. For instance when students are assigned to read Romeo and Juliet over the summer, they don't see the purpose as they can't connect to it. How does two lovers on opposite sides fighting for their love, apply to anything students today could relate to? As a matter of fact, it truly doesn't. Due to this, teacher designed projects are overall ineffective and have no true purpose that affects students.

The school system in America has always been about giving students the best education they can receive and utilize in their future. But, how is this possible when teachers are assigning all students material that they can't truly ever use in their everyday lives? Especially when this material is being forced onto students during the summer, the only long break they have to relax and rest their mind. Not only is this material ineffective, but it also doesn't allow students to demonstrate their true knowledge. Students should be able to design their own projects as it allows creativity and enables them to administer new ideas. Students are the future leaders of tomorrow, so their education should allow them to prosper and be the people who help make the world a better place.