Summer, the down time between school years, is effective because it gives students a break from the constant stress and work of school. However, over the summer break, it is common for students to forget information previously learned. This is why many schools have begun assigning summer homework or projects to help students retain knowledge and advance their skills.

The main question about these summer projects is, should it be teacher lead to student lead? If students were to design their own assignments, it is most likely they would compensate for extra time and activities but they would also not create challenging and retentive assignments, as to allow themselves extra free time. If teachers designed the assignments, it would be harder to compensate for all the busy activities during the summer that the students will also be participating in, but they will create a consistent and advantageous project and remove student laziness from the equation.

Although many older students work during the summer, the amount of time spent working is often over-estimated by themselves because they are enjoying the lack of school work. This created the perception that students are already preoccupied where the fact is that they have plenty of additional time to work on and complete projects. The addition of projects will also reduce the amount of time spent in the first few months of school reviewing past content, as students will be more refreshed upon their return to the school work environment.

Additionally, summer projects will help prepare students for the year round work involved in a real-world job. Schools main purpose is to prepare students and young adults for the work environment experienced in the real world, and therefore need to be realistic to cause good work ethic and consistency. If students, who have no real conception of the outside world, design their own projects, they will be too easy on themselves and not advance their skills. Teachers, on the other hand, who have a complementary knowledge of the workforce, will be able to create useful and realistically challenging projects.

There have been many studies done on students who have studied over summer break, and it is obvious that they have the clear advantage to those who have not practiced their skills. The greatest weakness attributing to student information loss would be becoming complacent or lazy over the summer, which is why students should have strict, organized, teacher lead projects over the summer.