Every summer, millions of students flood from their school buildings, on their way to about 100 straight days away from any form of academia. With the traditional school system having been around for decades, educators and social science researchers alike have longed for a way to strike a balance between learning and leisure during summer vacation. Within just a few moments of deliberation, one will realize that summer projects are a near perfect answer to supplement this lack of learning. To make most effective use of their time in the summer, kids should conduct student-

designed projects. It's through this process that students will become more engaged with the learning material, produce higher quality work, and begin to store information in their long term memory.

One of the major gripes students have begun to have with school is undoubtedly the lack a independence as it applies to their learning experience. While student driven projects are clearly more enjoyable than their teacher-designed counterparts, they also introduce a higher order of thinking to one's summer education. It forces children not only to display their knowledge of course material, but to apply said knowledge in a creative setting that requires a "bigger picture" understanding of the given topic. It goes without saying that students will take greater pride in their own work. They'll want to show up on the first day of school with a project that they feel proud to present to their peers.

When all the work is theirs, students will feel increasingly inclined to show that they have a full understanding and mastery of the topic. Nobody wants to feel left out, and, especially as kids age and progress higher up through the school system, the way classmates perceive one another becomes all too important. Along with work quality, quantity of projects will also see a drastic increase with the widespread introduction of student-driven learning. Procrastination and laziness is currently plaguing high school students across the globe, and many kids might show up to the first day of school without having laid a finger on the summer assignment. A more independent work environment will certainly instill more enthusiasm into the younger generations. When a more personal connection to one's schoolwork is formed, grinding out a page of reading a night doesn't sound quite as bad.

With recent generations of learners displaying less and less focus throughout the years, some might to disprove the effectiveness of student based projects. "Given full control over the projects parameters," one might claim, "students will become far too focused on obsolete details like font, backgrounds, and pictures." Someone who might hold this point of view believes a hands-off approach from teachers will only result in lower quality work and declining focus on the course material. However, we can observe time and time again in every day life that critical-thinking tasks can teach skills at an exponentially greater rate. Take an athlete for example, basketball and soccer players will often dribble while counting the number of fingers a partner holds up in front of them. Just like in a school setting, this exercise builds good habits and requires people to apply their newly learned skills in unfamiliar circumstances.

It's through a plethora of ways that student driven learning can benefit school systems around the world. More effective forms of education during the summer are invaluable in cutting down the amount of start up time at the beginning of any given school year where teachers struggle to prime their students for the year ahead. In place of the traditional project type, designed by teachers and administrators, more free reign forms of summer education produce a more enjoyable learning experience and prompt kids to retain far more knowledge than they would before. Overall, a shift towards more student liberties in this day in age could see monumental benefits for everyone involved in and around modern public schools.