All students want to enjoy their long awaited summer vacation to the fullest. Schools; however, feel that it is necessary for students to complete summer assignments to ensure that they do not forget what they learned over the summer. With the help of these projects, students will be better prepared for the topics that they will learn in the upcoming school year. The schools entrust the duty of designing these projects to the teachers because of their experience, but that does not mean that they know how to make the projects fit for the students. Knowing what works best for the students is up to the students and the students alone. Summer projects should be student designed because they will have more interest in their work, they will learn to be more independent, and the students will have a less stressful break.

Some argue that summer projects should be teacher designed because they know much more about the course than the students. An English teacher, that will be teaching students about the Age of Reason, assigns her students books that were written from that time and reflect those ideas. The books chosen by the teacher will help introduce her students to their new course. However, the students have no interest at all in the books that were assigned to them, and they have no will to read them since it is summer break. It is painful to finish a book that one is not interested in before a deadline. Their summer is ruined by pushing through these books, but if the students choose their books, they will be more inclined to read them.

Summer projects should be student designed because the assignments will be more interesting for them to complete. For world history class, the students assign themselves a project to write about any event in world history and show its significance. By choosing their own event, the students can figure out what topic interests themselves the most. The project is not designed to work best for the entire class, but to be specific to the interests of each individual student. The students understand each other the most, and they know how summer projects make them feel. They know how to make summer projects more productive over the summer. The for people to design projects will help them become more independent.

Summer assignments should be student designed because they help students become more independent people. A student is given the opportunity to create his projects meant for him during the summer, and he learns to complete work specific to him all on his own. When the project is designed by the student and for the student, that is the only person that knows how that project should be completed. He alone reaches success through the process of designing and finishing his own work. By creating his projects at a young age, he learns to rely more on himself, and he will become much more successful in the future. When the project is designed, the students also plans it to create a less stressful summer for themselves.

Summer projects should be student designed because their summer will be less stressful with assignments that they know more of. A student decides to write an essay on the impacts of the Roaring Twenties, her favorite time period, so she is able to plan when which parts of the essay will be completed and go at her own pace. Since she is the designer of the project, she understands how long the essay will take her. She enjoys working on this essay more because it is a topic that she likes, so it will not feel like it is work to her. Her time will not be spent dreading the assignment and stressing over a deadline all summer; rather, she will have more fun and work with a more relaxed environment with a project meant for her.

Assignments created by the students for summer vacation are more beneficial than assignments made by the teachers because students will be more invested in their projects, they form more self directed lives, and experience a more relaxed vacation. With projects that draw the attention of the students, they do not feel that it is work that they are just being forced to do. Their designing of the projects gives them the same benefit of learning without the cost ruining their break. It is up to the students to take the responsibility of advocating for this change in summer assignments. They can gain the support of their fellow students to reach out to their county Board of Education through letters and board meeting to express the need for change.