Over the summer, schools believe that handing out summer projects is beneficial to a student's learning. This is because over the summer, students tend to forget what they have learned that year. Thus, when they return from their vacation, they struggle to comprehend the material. Many students dread the idea of having summer projects since it can take up a lot of time on someone's hands. When someone thinks of summer, they think of fun and freedom from the prison they call "school". Summer projects are highly recommended though, because they help the student's brain maintain the information they learned. These projects should be student based, because students would be more likely to do the project and it lets their creativity shine through.

An issue that many students see is that projects over the summer tend to be banal. This causes them to give up right away and not complete it. For example, I was given a project over the summer for English. It was very uninteresting because there was just an essay to do. Since this project was bland, I did not feel like doing it. It was dreadful to sit at a computer and write a long essay. There was nothing engaging about the assignment that could make a me inspired to write. The assignment ended up being useless, because it did not help me retain any information and it did not help me be prepared for the upcoming school year. Helping design the projects can help that student become better in school since the project that they would be designing would be beneficial to them.

Using creativity is one of the most important things for growth as a student. The left part of the brain is where all the creativity is stored. I have noticed how in schools there are not many classes or activities that let that side of the brain function. A good way for it to work is to let the projects be the outlet of all that thinking process. As an example, in my communications class, we always make videos and learn how to edit. My teacher one day let us do a video project. This meant that it could be about whatever our hearts wanted. Our videos could be a documentary, a music video, a scary movie, etc. We got to run our own projects. I chose to do a documentary about a singer in our school. This project let my ideas flow onto what I was making. I enjoyed to do the project because I was doing what I had envisioned. The difference between the teacher based project and the student based project is that it gave us the freedom to think outside the box. That odyssey of doing a project that us students designed was an experience that helped apply our knowledge.

Teacher designed projects though, do have its benefits as well. They are designed to help every student. When teachers come up with these projects they make sure that every detail can somehow help them prepare for the upcoming year. That way, when the students come back in the fall, they would have already had a preview of the material and won't be so behind. These assignments usually flow into different assignments. For example, an English essay can flow into a Socratic seminar. An issue that could come up with student designed learning is that, the students may design a project that does not require much effort or learning. This could become a grave issue when it is time to come back for classes. Hence, the teachers must give a project that will make the students learn.

Student designed projects is an idea that should be considered. The amount of students that would do the projects would increase. This would make the students more engaged in what they are doing and will make them learn something from it. The projects would be designed for them and they would not have trouble completing it. These summer projects do not have to seem dreadful, they can be percieved as a fun learning experience. The education system should put in place a choice for schools to let students design their own assignments over the summer. Student designed summer projects should be permitted because students would do the projects, and it would let their creativity shine.