Summer is a great time of year for both teachers and students. Months of break and leisure allow for a good cool down after a long school year. However, summer isn't all fun and games, as many schools give out summer assignments in order to keep the students learning over break. But should the responsibility of designing these projects fall on the student or the teacher? I believe that teachers should create and design these projects, as students could make the assignment too easy or too hard, warp the directions to a point where the final product is no longer what the teacher is looking for, or just not complete it.

My first reason justifying my belief is that students could make the assignment too easy or too hard. If given the choice between taking on a difficult assignment and an easy one, most students would choose the easy one. In this same way, if students are given the opportunity to make their own assignment, then they will do everything in their power to make sure it's as simple and easy as possible. This results in them not actually learning anything and defeats the whole purpose of the assignment in the first place. On the other side of the spectrum, there could be students who try to take on too much with their project, setting lofty goals and overcomplicating the assignment. This only serves to build stress the student over break as then they feel as if their project is too much to complete and only do a minimal amount of work on it, if any at all. If a teacher were to give set directions, then this wouldn't happen as there would be a very minimal amount of freedom, resulting in projects being neither too easy or too difficult.

Furthermore, if a student is given the reigns on the creation of an assignment, they could warp the directions, intentionally or accidentally, and the project could end up becoming something the teacher isnt looking for. This could happen for many reasons, ranging from students with malcontent looking to make it easier for themselves or students who just understood the directions differently than the teacher explained them, resulting in a project that doesn't teach the student what they need to learn. If this occurs, the student would not realize their mistake until they go back to school in the fall and turn in their assignment for a grade, leaving them with a bad grade to start off the year and no chance for remediation.

However, the opportunity to create and design the assignment could help students find motivation and may even affect the quality of the work. It's no secret that people do better work when they are invested in the topic or field, and often times go out of their way to avoid topics they hate. Because of this, if students are given the freedom to create their own project, they are more likely to center it around something they are passionate about, leading them to be more likely to not only complete the assignment over break but actually put effort into it.

Contrary to the previous point, students, if left to their own devices, could end up just not doing the assignment. This could happen because the vague guidelines given by the teacher to design an an assignment could be unclear and seem overwhelming to even begin. Non-creative students could also not to start the project as they can't think of a place to start, leaving them to be more likely to not try. Even if the student does get over the initial barrier of creating an assignment, they could get bored wit their topic and change it several times, resulting lack of motivation to actually finish or a final product that is half baked or an amalgamation of several ideas.

In conclusion, summer projects need to be created and designed by teachers in order to prevent students from making and assignment too easy or too hard, warping the directions, or not doing the assignment at all. All of these only result in the students getting nothing out of their summer assignments, leaving precious break time wasted.