Throughout the school year, students are overwhelmed with mandatory classes and time-consuming activities. Today's students are more stressed than ever as they tried to keep up with their advanced classes and heavy workload. This often leaves students having to pick between their extracurricular and their school work, leaving them very little time to just be kids. Summer gives students the opportunity to relax and enjoy the world, but for many students summer assignments interfere. Allowing students to design their own summer assignments enables them to learn about something they are interested in all while continuing to emphasize the importance of learning in their daily lives.

Students are given very little opportunity to take classes that appeal to them or that will benefit them in their future careers. Most high schools have a certain number of mandatory classes that must be taken to graduate and grant students only one or two electives. Giving students the ability to pick their own summer project lets them get the chance to explore a topic of their interest. A self-chosen project would feel less like a stressful job and more of an adventure. This would evoke passion in students and teachers will see better work in return. Additionally, students should not be limited to pick between certain topics, they should be able to choose anything from science to sports, and anll that falls inbetween. Introducing their own passions through a student-selected activity may even bring the joy of learning back after a school year full of stress.

Schools often placed students in a box and present them with one way to learn. Standardize tests and their GPA start to define kids and throughout the school year, kids begin to loose interest in school and count down the days till summer. There is love of learning has been abandoned and each class drags on. Schools have the responsibility to engage their students and prepare them for life, a student-chosen summer project is a step in that direction. Schools that have started this have seen increased participation in the summer projects and more students are willing to learn throughout the school year.

Consequently, schools must maintain some rules for their summer projects. Education is the most powerful tool a person can have and should be treated with such importance. Learning should be incorporated into your everyday and should not be placed on the back-burner during summer break. Schools must enforce a level of complexity to the project to ensure that the projects are of equal effort. For example, a student can not call watching television their passion. It is important to acknowledge all types of interests but giving students free range on a summer assignment could result in laziness or incomplete work. However, students who treat this project as a last minute event is more of a reflection on the student than the project itself. Nevertheless, schools must present some authority in assigning the project while still maintaining the idea of enabling students to explore their interests.

Allowing students to select their own summer project is both beneficial to the students and the school. Teachers have all year to assign their own projects and summer is the perfect time for it be the students turn to explore their own passions and learn about an unknown topic. Although, initially schools will have to place some rules on the project the opportunity to bring the joys of learning back to kids is something that can not be pass up.