Summer projects for students are comparable to working on vacation for adults. They are meaningless in a sense, as they don't prepare for the classes being taken the following school year. They shouldn't be assigned by teachers because most of the time the assignments don't get done because of the lack of interest in the subject. Instead, students should be able to choose their own projects, and it shouldn't have to be put on a big poster that takes hours to complete, or a lengthy powerpoint that the student doesn't even believe the teacher will look through completely. Students should be able to explore their interests as they please without the burden of completing an assignment outside of school.

Most students don't feel like taking the time out of their summer to complete a teacher assigned project due to their lack of interest in the subject, it feels like a waste of time to them, and rightfully so. The projects should be less about the physical work and more about actually learning and enlightening themselves with a topic that fits their interests. If a teacher were to assign a book report for over the summer, they should be able to choose what book they want to read. Of course certain criteria with the book should be met such as page length and genre, but the actual book itself should be chosen by the student. Not everybody wants to read "beautiful literary pieces" such as

" Huckleberry Fin"

or

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

, not everybody wants to go through a book trying to analyze and completely understand the foreign language being spoken in some of these books, and not everybody wants to annotate each and every paragraph from every single page of the book. Students just want to enjoy what they're reading as it makes it a lot easier to report back to your teacher if you enjoyed the project, opposed to someone who absolutely hated it.

Summer projects altogether should be optional for students. A lot of people travel over the summer, play sports, or do other things that make them very busy. They don't want to be in California having an amazing time but still have that school project lingering in the back of their mind, it just ruins the vacation for them. Teachers wouldn't like to be on vacation and worried about grading the papers of 180 or so students, so students deserve the same respect during their time off as well. A lot of students also work summer jobs too, which means even more of their "break" is being taken from them. It's summer break and the weight of school should be lifted off of their shoulders for just three months. Teachers have the other nine months to assign things, don't wait until we finish the school year to do so.

It's understood that students are given these assignments to "further their education", but to the student it doesn't really feel like they're learning anything from it. It just feels like some more work the teacher is handing them that needs to be completed at a certain time. In what way is that beneficial to the student? Asking students to conduct a little research on their own is a lot more educationally beneficial than having them do a full on project. On top of that it shouldn't be mandatory. A student is more likely to go look something up on their phone or laptop once the get home if the topic is just suggested to them, not being forced upon them. If they find it interesting then maybe they could actually complete a project on the subject, but that should be at their discretion. the "fun-factor" plays a big role in whether or not a student is learning. The thirst for more knowledge because they are intrigued with a topic woukd produce better results and less stress with the project.

If a summer project is to be teacher-designed, students should be given a wide array of options to choose from on how to go about this project. They shouldn't be forced to write a 5 page essay or have a 10 minute presentation or create a 30 slide powerpoint. There's many ways to express our knowledge but we get limited by the normalities of modern presentation. Students could sing a song, draw a portrait, give a speech, there's so many options to choose from.

The entire summer project should be left up to the student. The topic, the presentation method, maybe even the due date as long as it's within a reasonable amount of time. It shouldn't feel like weight on a student's shoulders as it should be fun and exciting, as teachers should want it to be. If the assignment is given, it shouldn't be mandatory because not everyone has the luxury of free time over the sumer. Some students may travel a lot and others could be helping their parents or siblings with a family-run business. Teachers also had the entire nine months that we're in school for to assign the project, so they should not wait until our time off to give us something that might not even matter in the upcoming year. The idea of a summer project is just pointless as it's just used to keep studetns in "school-mode" for the entire year. It usually takes about a week or two for students to become re-acclimated with school after summer break is over so that can't even be a reason as to why the projects are given.