Why is education so important for our generation and the many generations to come? Education has a major role in helping students become more aware and understanding of the world. Students study hard all year long and work on assignments that help them develop many different skills, as well as assignments that will help them gain more knowledge as they get older. In order for schools to help students maintain their learning habits, so that they come back to school prepared, they give out projects for students to work on during the summer. Now the question here is, should the schools hand out teacher-designed projects or student-designed projects? Schools that require summer projects should allow the projects to be student-designed as it lets the students showcase their creative abilities and it is more manageable than a teacher-designed project.

Firstly, a student-designed project will help the students gain creative intelligence. Nowadays, many students do not like being forced to do assignments or projects that they have no interest in. It can cause them to lose focus and do poorly on the project/assignment. To have the ability to implement their own ideas and thoughts into a project would be way more efficient than a project where the students get little to no creative freedom. For example, if a student is extremely interested in music, they can use what they are passionate about and create a song for his/her summer project. This project will enhance the student's knowledge on music and let them have a chance to build their skills while having a good time. Since it is also something they like to do, the student will put more effort into it unlike a teacher-designed project where they will be less motivated to do a good job. Moreover, for students who do not usually explore their creative side, the student-designed project will be a great opportunity for them to be able to improve in that area. So through research and their own abilities, many students will learn new things about themselves that they did not know before. Overall, creativity is key to good projects and with student-designed projects comes creative freedom, which interests students way more than a normal project would.

Secondly, student-designed projects are more manageable. During the summer, many students tend to go on vacations. If the school a student was attending, was to give out a teacher-designed project for the summer and the place the student went on a trip to, did not have the tools needed to complete the project, then everything would be a total disaster. Teacher-designed projects can sometimes be too specific in what they want which can be hard to deal with during the summer. If it was a student-designed project then the student could work with what they have instead of being stuck in the middle of a crisis. Additionally, students have better time management with student-designed projects. Since the project is purely based off of the students interests, they will be more motivated to do the project on time and not the night before school begins (which is what many teacher-designed projects lead to). Student-designed projects have more flexibility and uniqueness than teacher-designed projects.

Lastly, some people may argue that a teacher-designed project would be better because it keep students from doing a project that is too easy or a project that makes no sense. Actually, a student-designed project is more difficult than it seems. Through a teacher-designed project, students are given rules and specific directions for their project that will help them focus on the research of about only one topic, but as for student-designed projects there is so many topics you can choose from that it can be difficult to come up with the main idea for your project. So no, it is not as easy as some may think and requires just as much effort (maybe even more) as a teacher-designed project. Furthermore, the claim that through a student-designed project, "students might create projects that make no sense", can also be said about teacher-designed projects. A student who is given a project from their teacher can also turn in their project and it can make no sense. So overall, student-designed projects are just as challenging as teacher-designed projects.

To provide students with a period of time to reflect and build on their own ideas is how we can make them become more engaged in education. Through the school year, students receive enough assignments that are teacher-designed, so to break out of this tradition and try something new will definitely help students develop new skills. This is also very beneficial for teachers who have to grade the projects because instead of looking through different projects that all have similar main ideas or topics, they will be looking at all types of topics and won't get bored of grading the same things over and over again. Student-designed projects help students gain creative intelligence, are more interesting to students, are easier to manage, and can be just as challenging as teacher-designed projects.