For students, summer tends to be a time of relaxation and laziness. No longer worried about waking up early to go to school or staying up late to finish homework, kids are free to do as they wish for about 2 months. Therefore, some students get annoyed when teachers assign projects over the summer, as they believe that they should not have to work at all during that time. The solution to this problem is not to remove summer learning entirely, though - it is important for the student to retain information over the summer so that they will not have to re-learn everything the following year. An ideal middle ground, therefore, would be letting the student design their own summer project. While teacher-designed summer projects would follow the curriculum of the school more, student-designed summer projects would be more ideal because they would give students the motivation to work on their own and foster the crucial skill of independence in them.

Having students create their own summer projects may increase their desire to work on it, as projects would be tailored to each student's individual interests. Children would be much more likely to work on an assignment if it is about something they are interested in, not something they are being forced to do. In addition, they could start thinking about their summer project before summer even arrives, rather than waiting for the teacher to come up with an assignment for them. This gives them more time to come up with ideas and work. Finally, each student spends their summer differently. Some older students are busy doing internships or college tours, while others are more free. Having students create their own projects based on their abilities (which students themselves have a good idea of) and personal time constraints would ensure that each student produces the best quality work that they can. Students would not feel like they are overwhelmed with work, because they are the ones who dictate how much work they have to do. A beneficial side effect of this is that while some students may be able to spend more time working on their project, it will give the teacher a general sense of each student's capabilities and time management skills.

Not only would student-made summer projects increase their desire to work, but it would also make them more independent, a necessary skill for all children but particularly for those in high school. Many students in high school would be preparing to go to college soon, and it is important that they learn how to be independent before they leave so that they are able to thrive in college, as they should. Students will not always have someone to create "projects" or learning experiences for them; college in particular makes students learn much of the material outside of class. Consistently giving students teacher-created projects and assignments throughout elementary, middle, and high school makes students believe that they only need to do what the teacher gives them to learn the material and pass the class. However, the same system does not apply in college - professors will not "spoon-feed" students information, they expect them to learn it on their own, however they are comfortable doing so. Giving students opportunities to increase their creativity and figure out how they learn best, even for something as small as a summer project, would ensure that they start becoming independent before it is necessary for them to have fully developed the skill. This would eventually lead to the student being able to succeed not only in college, but beyond, such as when they get a job.

While it is obvious that there are benefits to having summer projects be teacher-created, a major one being that it stays in line with the school curriculum, having student-created summer projects would give more long-term benefits by increasing a student's motivation to work and making them more independent. Teachers may be able to ensure that students follow a certain rubric or include certain information in their project, but the main job of a teacher is to make sure that a student learns. Today's school system has taken much of the joy out of learning by making students focus more on grades than the actual material being taught, and forcing them to learn to pass the tests instead of learning because they want to. Admittedly, there are some students who can only be taught through force, as they do not want to learn by themselves. For such students, it may be more beneficial to have them to teacher-created summer projects. Overall, however, having students design their summer projects may bring back the joy of learning in them, and making students want to learn is much more important than them getting a 10 out of 10 on a provided rubric.