For one to grow one must know their own problems. This phrase is there to help realize that we as a student must take a stand of our own. Teachers are there for us to learn to grow and not to make all of our educational choices. There are certain decisions that we must take in order for it to work. Therefore, I believe students should be able to choose their own summer assignment in order to encourage students to participate in the assignment as well as help them grow.

Students would be more willing to participate in these summer assignment if they had the freedom to choose what they will be learning about. One example of that would be when I get my summer assignment that's written by a teacher it doesn't really help me get in the mood to do any learning. My goal was always to finish it when the time comes. Unfortunately this isn't only me, whenever I talk to my peers about these summer assignments they have almost the same response and some don't even do it at all. This indicates that these assignments are not getting students to be more enthusiastic about learning and some don't even care to participate.

Learning should encourage us to grow, not only in school but outside of school as well. There's a certain amount of support a teacher can provide to a student. When there are constant rules involved most students exactly follow those rules and forgets what the important part. This tells us students don't try to go beyond the guidelines and don't look for the bigger picture. Furthermore, following certain rules doesn't make us really learn; it's just there for us to not go below standards. Most of the time students are required to follow guidelines and not really think outside the box. We live in a society where is guidelines everywhere; these guidelines aren't really getting the students to be creative rather it's preventing their creativity to flow.

Some might argue that students might be choosing easy assignments for themselves that isn't challenging enough. That might be the case for some students, but even then they are still learning. The whole point of summer assignments is for them to learn. Even if they are trying to take the easy way out they will find them learning more then what is necessary. Rules will be applied by themselves when they will start assigning themselves and will be learning about it.

In conclusion; yes, there might be some loophole and some risk that we are all taking will be taken, but if school don't take the chances we will not have the space we need to grow. When it's the students themselves that designed the assignment they know they are responsible as to how to do that assignment. Not only is it encouraging them to be better students but also helping them learn to take responsibility and be encouraged to learn.