In young adult life, such as the high school years, many students lack responsibility. This is because society does not put enough trust in teenagers to make their own choices and decisions; thus, stereotyping a whole generation with negative connotations. For this reason I believe that the summer projects should be student designed to help better their own generations reputation and develop valuable life skills.

Many student grow up always being told what to do and how to do it. This does not allow for any creativity or original thoughts to be generated all by ones self. For example, when I was a child, my parents would lay out clothes each morning for me to wear to school. Not only did this limit my creativity, it also limited my self identity because I was unable to express myself in what clothes I wear. This so called favor that my parents would do for me caused me to never learn how to dress myself in a reasonable fashion for the appropriate setting. Just like how the students will never know how to design their own projects if the teachers do not put any faith in the students for just this one summer. The teachers will be able to see a students best representation of his or hers creativity and level of learning because they will have something to prove to society. To show everyone that they are able to do things on their own or independently. The students need to have the teachers and society's trust to exceed what is expected of them because society will never know what these students are capable of if they are never given an opportunity to prove themselves. This will better the generations reputation if done correctly.

These students need to be prepared for college and the real world outside of school, such as the work force. For example, if a child wanted to play soccer you would not just sit them in front of a television and watch soccer games. This might be a good way to teach them the general idea of what soccer is but they will never be able to learn the skills that are necessary in the game. That child will never learn how to pass, shoot, kick, or even have the social skills to communicate with his team mates. This goes the same for any other activity. The teachers in this school are treating there students just like this child. If they just give them the summer project and tell them to complete it they will never learn the skills of self-management and creativity that they would develop while design their own summer projects. These are valuable skills that students will need later in their own life time. The most important part of school should be teaching these valuable skills to make the students more independent rather than just the curriculum.

Some people may believe that the curriculum is the most important part of school and that is why the teachers should be designing the summer projects. They would argue that some students would fail at the task of designing their own projects. However, even if the students fail at this task they will learn from the failure. They learn what they did wrong in order to develop more skills and when the next opportunity comes they will not fail. Either way fail or succeed the students learn different types of independent life skills that are very valuable and needed for adult life.

In conclusion, students need to be better prepared for the independence that comes later in their life, whether it is college or the work force, these valuable life skills need to be learned for the ability to succeed in any area of life. For this reason I believe that the summer projects should be designed by the students for the chance to prove there worth and develop key skills that are required in adult life. Do not limit what a student can do based on the stereotypes around their generation. Let students have the opportunity to represent what they know.