It should come as no surprise that the secret to scholarly success is to stay one step ahead of the competition. Recognizing this, many schools have opted to assign summer course work to ensure their students start the next year strong. However, they often face the dilemma over whether these assignments should be designed by teachers or by the students themselves. Despite the possibility of kids slacking off, student-driven summer work will prepare students for a future in their chosen field and ease the stressful workloads of both teachers and students alike.

The stress of a high school environment is all but increasing, and has been for decades. This trend has been documented extensively over the years, and all these studies sum up to high-schoolers, on average, being exhausted, overworked and overall unhappy on a daily basis. Teachers are not spared either, as they face the same struggles their students deal with day in and day out, often for no more than a substandard salary to say the least. Therefore, it makes sense for schools to do anything in their means to ease the burdens of a rigorous academic climate. One of the best ways to go about this would be to allot responsibilities of designing summer work from teachers to their students.

Another advantage of this proposition is that students will be able to take control of their own educational futures. The thought and effort they put into their summer work will directly manifest itself in their scores. Those who perform poorly will score poorly, whereas those who take it seriously will reap the rewards. This is the best way for teachers to measure the academic integrity of a class, allowing them to hone in on students who need assistance the most over the coming school year. As an added benefit, students will be pushed to learn other essential skills such as time management and independence which will certainly come into play later on in their lives.

Perhaps most important of all, students will have the opportunity to pursue an area of study of their choice. An individualized approach tailored for and by each student on their own is sure to make learning a more enjoyable and productive experience. In contrast, a standardized assignment designed to fulfill the needs and wants of each unique individual in a class at once amounts to nothing but stress, frustration and apathy towards what could have been an indispensable tool for students' future careers.

The advantages of a student-driven summer project far outweigh the potential pitfalls of such a program.

Those who would be inclined to laze their way out of assignments will find ways to avoid doing work no matter what, so why impede the success of the majority due to the inevitable actions of the few? Hopefully soon enough academic institutions will come to their senses and adopt such policies which provide unlimited benefit to all involved.