Nothing admits more absolute fear, than when you come in on the first day of school and the teachers asks for that important English project, which was due over the summer, that no one knew existed. You're not the only one. Many schools nowadays offer summer projects, which allow students to progressively learn the material for a classroom before going to school, preparing them for what's ahead and accelerating the first few weeks of school. But most of the time, these projects are made boring and often feel like an interference on our summer break. Quite frankly, anyone would prefer being with their friends rather than working on slide 22 of the AP Chemistry PowerPoint. So to put it forward, students, not teachers or anyone else, should be able to set the guidelines for these projects, so they can make it more creative and enjoyable, allow it to be more achievable, and to encourage more students to do their project due to the task being more receivable.

First off, it is consistently seen that creativity is dwindled by specific guidelines set by teachers on a project. Your project MUST have 20 slides or more, it MUST contain this or that. But as we see in the popular book/film series Harry Potter, particularly the first one, it is clearly shown that his aunt and uncle refuse to let him become a wizard. But as we know, he eventually goes to the "Hogwarts" and realizes the benefits of removing himself from the strict guidelines of his guardians, leading him to become much more invested in what he wants to become and happier overall. Allowing students to design these projects would allow for infinitely more opportunity. Rather than following the standard set pieces of paper or instructions, it would ultimately allow for students to push in their passions to these summer projects, encouraging them to do it and allows teachers to have insight on what how their students learn and express their knowledge. All in all, allow the students to take control and dispose of the original guidelines of class standards would allow for a creative boost from their fellow students, which would greatly boost the enjoyment for those doing the project.

To continue, many students have devoted their time to other important causes over the summer, such as: having a job, going on a vacation to see family, or working on their hobbies. Whatever it may be, it's clear that an intimidating summer project would very quickly begin to interfere with those experiences. In the film "Coco," the main character (Milo) wishes to progress with his ability to play the guitar, but his families standard of shoe-making contradicts his own personal wants, and ultimately causes conflict with his family. This proves that if our school-life interferes with our passion and hobbies, there will be a certain amount of pain inflicted on those who have to put aside their own personal drives for some pathetic project. That is why it is essential for students to take charge of this project, because we are more aware that we don't waste our time doing random shenanigans and choose to make every moment count, ultimately leading the project to fit in when we can do it, and having specific standards that allow us to continue what we enjoy, and not fall flat to unfair due dates and standards.

Finally, we understand that teachers are much more experienced then we are. They have developed knowledge through years in college and have learned way more of life's lessons then we had. So why shouldn't they just keep doing the usual? Personally, I believe there is a certain bias against students due to this experience. To connect this: for my English class in 10th grade, I was required to write an essay which added on to a story I believed to be perfect as. There was no way out of the assignment and there was no way I could convince my teacher otherwise, and this one essay made my grade drop dramatically. But later that year, we were to act out scenes from the play "Macbeth," yet the catch was we had to make it in our own guidelines and how to act it out. We were able to make this play, which is usually an assignment most people disgust, relate to ourselves and made it much more enjoyable. And that's the key right there: teachers may have experience, but they often unintentionally close off our connection to the material by creating unnecessary standards for said material. Students know their own peers, so it would only make sense for us to create the projects, so we can connect with our proper audience. In the end, teachers are not, in any way, bad at their jobs or have a "boomer" mindset based on their experience and knowledge. But there is an isolation of connectivity when receiving specific assignments, especially summer projects where all we have are instructions. So it's clear that students have the upper hand when it comes to connecting and involving other students into a more familiar and breathable environment

Now imagine you're back on that first day of school, except this time, it's not a soulless and effortless PowerPoint. This time, you and your friends got to get together and create an exciting and thrilling video about the summer assignment, and that excitement also shows your knowledge of the units for that class yet to come. This could be the potential of our summer projects, as students would be very willing to set the standards of summer projects; an exciting and encapsulating task for knowledge that benefits both the students and the teachers. This is just simply due to their spike in creativity, their understanding of making the guidelines realistically possible, and just making the project more reliable and having more likely to do the summer project.