Summertime is everyone's favorite time of year. School is out, which means no more waking up at 6am to catch the bus or staying up at unreasonable hours to complete assignments. Teachers no longer have to spend endless hours creating lesson plans or tediously putting in students' grades. It is a time that everyone can enjoy. However, it is not uncommon for schools to assign summer projects to their students, as that is how they ensure that students continue to learn over the break. Although, a question that is frequently discussed is whether it should be the teachers' responsibility or the students' responsibility to design these assignments. I believe that, due to the amount of time teachers put into planning for students throughout the year and the usual lack of control students have over their assignments, it would be appropriate to allow the students the design these summer projects for themselves.

An integral part of being a teacher is devising lesson plans for students every year. It is the most basic yet necessary part of a functioning classroom. Teachers create a detailed plan including what the students are going to learn, how they are going to learn it, and what is the time frame that they are going to learn it by. Then they apply that lesson plan onto the students until the next lesson plan is needed, and so on. However, imagine if towards the end of the year, instead of having to create a final exam/project in addition to summer assignments, teachers made the students design their own summer projects as their final grade. Of course, the teachers would enforce some form of structure and requirements for the summer project, but it would be infinitely easier on the teachers, and potentially more enjoyable on everyone involved. That way, teachers would be alleviating the stress of having to create an additional summer assignment, while simultaneously having a somewhat enjoyable final project for the class. Being a teacher is no easy feat, and while this by no means significantly decreases the workload off teachers, it provides a small relief for teachers at the end of the year, a time in which everyone is on the edge of their seat, waiting for that blissful final bell to ring and signal the end of another school year.

Students spend the large majority of their time in school completing assignments handed to them. Whether it be a test, and essay, or a worksheet, students show up everyday to school and get told what they will be doing that day, and it is often not something they are enthusiastic to complete. In fact, students rarely ever get a say or opinion in what their next time-consuming task will be, and often times if the students are uninterested in the task, they are more likely to exert less effort in it and submit unsatisfactory work, or in some cases, not submit it at all. In regards to summer assignments specifically, students often have little-to-no motivation to complete any academic work, especially when they just spent ten months prior working endlessly on school work. Taking that into consideration, students are significantly more likely to willingly complete their work if they design it themselves, as they know what interests them and what does not. They know what kind of assignments intrigue them and what kinds do not. If they are given the opportunity to formulate their own project, they will be able to devise it in such a way that is tailored to them specifically, drastically increasing their chances of doing well and submitting exemplary work. Giving students this control over summer assignments serves to make summer vacation a more enjoyable experience on both students and teachers alike.

While the idea of permitting student-designed summer assignments may appeal to some, there are still those who are opposed to the idea. Some may argue that if students are given control over their summer assignments, they might abuse that privilege and devise projects that do not meet the required standard, or may not reach the caliber of learning that they are capable of and require minimal effort. However, not only is that an easily avoidable situation, it is also not dire cause for concern. Teachers could very easily assign a rubric and a list of expectation that must be met in order for a student's project to qualify. The project could go under review by the teacher so that he or she can determine whether or not that project is permissible. In spite of all that, however, even if some of the students still abuse their privilege and make less-than-average projects, the teachers could simply just refuse to accept their project. Since the students did not comply with the regulations set earlier and refused to put in effort to improve their project, they should be held accountable. They could be required to either devise and complete an entirely new project that meets the standards, or the teachers could give them a failing grade. Whatever course of action taken should, of course, be up to the teachers' discretion, but the fear of students taking advantage of such an opportunity is unreasonable and invalid, and the positive results of such an assignments greatly outweigh the negatives.

In many schools, summer projects are likely to be assigned regardless, so what is the harm in breaking traditional norms and making way for a newer, more enjoyable way of learning that can be appreciated by everyone involved, simply by giving the students the power to create their own projects?