It is important for students to continue developing their minds and knowledge over summer break, but I think it is even more important for them to do so by doing something that intrigues them. During the school year, students are constantly pressured to do assignments that aren't of their interest, which commonly leads them to procrastinate the assignments and their desire to do any work drops. Summer break is an escape for students nationwide; teachers should allow them to have that time to be stress-free, to have fun, and to enjoy everyday to the best of their ability. I believe that if students were to have to do a summer project it should be student-designed for these three reasons: (1) there is no reason for a student to learn about something that doesn't interest them over their break, (2) a student should not be stressed or confused about school work over break, and (3) the student's mind would develop more by giving them the freedom to use imagination and creativity to design their own project.

During the school year, students are made to do assignments that they may not understand or have any interest in. And while teachers assign that work in order to give the students the information they need for standardized testing, there is no reason for them to give the students work that fits that curriculum over summer break. As a student in high school, it is quite common to hear students, and even teachers, say that the topics we have to learn about will be useless in our everyday lives as adults. As I implied before, summer is supposed to be an escape from the constant memorization of information for the next big test. A student-designed project over the summer would continue the education of the students, but in a way that allows them to learn about and work on a topic that they find interest in.

Although there are other things that could stress out a student over summer break, one of those stresses should never be schoolwork. Many don't realize it, but the amount of stress that high school and college students tend to carry around is extreme. For example, I am constantly over thinking about the countless hours of homework that I will have to sit through when I get home, the big test that I will probably fail at the end of the week, or exactly how these people expect me to get an A in a class when the teacher doesn't even teach me. Situations like this leave students to worry; in my opinion, students shouldn't have to go through that during their time off. By giving them the opportunity to create their own project and decide what they will be spending their time working on, the chances of the students becoming stressed over the assignment would be lower than if the teacher were to design the project and give them certain criteria to fill.

When a teacher assigns a project that the students aren't particularly interested in, odds are that they will just breeze through the whole thing and not retain any of the information because they just want to complete the assignment. Thus meaning that the project didn't actually help the student develop in any way. I am almost certain that this would be especially true over the summer months when students have no desire to do school work, mostly because they aren't in school and, in the case of a teacher-designed project, wouldn't find the assignment interesting. If teachers were to give the students the freedom to design their own projects, the students would have to be creative in making an assignment in order to keep themselves entertained. The likelihood of a student making a project on something that doesn't interest them is very much unlikely. I truly don't think anyone would willingly do work that didn't interest them.

Overall, I believe that a summer project designed by a teacher would be miserable and useless. Because of the standardized testing situation, students being forced to learn material that isn't particularly important. Students feel that their success is determined by the score they get, and honestly, it kind of is. As you can imagine, that can cause someone a lot of stress and actually end up limiting their ability to develop into something/someone greater. I am sure that everyone knows what it feels like to lose a little bit of confidence and determination once you get a bad grade on an assignment. After weeks and months of students learning the curriculum that the state wants them to learn, I think it important to give them the time and encouragement to look into a topic that may actually be of interest to them. Which is where the student-designed project comes into play. All students deserve to have a break from the mental battle that comes along with constantly forcing themselves to learn information that doesn't intrigue them. A summer project should be open ended so that the students don't fall under the pressure of meeting the specific standards of the teacher, but to feel obligated to look into something they find interesting.