Most students try their best to avoid learning over the summer. As a result, they forget the knowledge they learned in the prior school year and aren't prepared for the upcoming school year. To get used to learning again, student's brains need to be refreshed and stimulated in the beginning of every school year.

As an attempt to solve this problem, teachers assign summer projects. Students, often times, despise these projects because they are boring and stressful. However, these projects are neccessary because they ensure students don't forget about school. To make the projects more enjoyable for students, they should design the projects instead of teachers. Student-designed projects would be better because they focus on their interests, have higher quality, and be less stressful.

In most cases, students don't find school work interesting because the topics aren't based around things students care about. Students get tired of learning about the same meaningless things that have no value in their lives. The things they are taught in school can't be applied to the real world and are based around a broken system that focuses on grades and memorization, not learing. Student-designed projects would focus on their interests. Students would actually want to learn compared to falling asleep in their history class listening to something that happened 900 years ago. Students could assign themselves a project based on a book they enjoy or a phenonom they find mysterious. Students would work and have fun doing it. The projects would still be educational and purposeful, but students wouldn't feel forced to do it.

It is a known fact that if people love what they do, they will put more effort into it. When people don't enjoy their work, they don't care as much and don't try as hard. This concept can be applied to student-designed projects. For once, students would be excited to work and learn because they get the chance to do something their passionate about. Students would put more effort into their projects. As a result, their quality of work and overall project would be much better compared to if they had to work on a teacher-designed project. They would get higher grades and teachers would be impressed with their work.

School is extremely stressful for students throughout the school year. The workload is intense and hard to manage. Teachers give difficult test and assign massive piles of homework that students have to complete for typically seven classes. Students feel pressure to attain good grades. This can lead to terrible sleep patterns, mental breakdowns, and anxiety attacks. Outside factors can also add to their stress. Students have to deal with their social and family problems, which can be emotionally traumatizing. Students also partake in clubs and sports or have jobs that just add to their workload. Summer is a much needed break for students because they can escape from the stress that the school year brings. On their break, the last thing students want is another stressful project. Student-designed projects would reduce their stress significantly. They wouldn't feel as much pressure to meet their teachers standards and would wouldn't procrastinate as much. Student-designed projects would encourage learning for students without incorporating the factor of stress that comes along with school work.

Some might say that student-designed projects wouldn't focus on real topics or be taken seriously by the students. However, teachers could approve the designs to make sure they are educational. Teachers can also grade the projects like teacher-designed projects to make sure students don't blow the project off. Students will enjoy these projects much more because they can have fun with it. These projects will also help them learn over the summer break and prepare them for the school year. Student-designed projects are much better than teacher-designed projects because they focus on the students interests, increase their quality of work, and take away stress. Student-designed summer break projects should be implemented into more school systems around America.