After nine months of endless assignments and fighting the desperate battle to balance academics and extracurriculars, summer break arrives for public schools around the country. Those three months spent relaxing in the sun can be a much needed escape for many, but they can also do a huge disservice, as the knowledge that was previously gathered slowly deteroriates with the sudden loss of daily learning. Schools across America have begun to hand out summer assignments for the classes that are to be taken that fall, and it has ultimately been a success. The question now is how these summer assignments should be created and then presented. I personally believe that these projects and worksheets should be student-designed and for the following reasons: students understand their own time restraints, they know what level of difficulty works for them, and they can see what is and isn't necessary to review.

First is the management of time. The only people who understand what kinds of schedules students follow over the summer are students themselves. Many teachers seem to believe that the summer experienced by high schoolers is similar to those in Disney Channel movies; they wake up at noon and hang out with their friends every day until school starts back up again. The tough truth to accept is that summer has only gotten harder with the passing years. Many students pick up part time jobs to gain income, while others take on their own academic hurdles, such as Generic_School. It can be extraordinarily difficult to find time to lift your head above the flowing current of busywork, which makes it more important that students design these summer assignments. They know how much time to set aside for academic work, and they can think through an effective time management plan which would make assignments not too short and also not too long: moderation.

The second point to examine is the level of difficulty. Students know what kind of work they can handle. From personal experience, it wasn't very fun to sit at the beach and attempt to complete the first page in a packet of AP Chemistry problems, but it was perfectly necessary and extremely helpful. The questions required knowledge from past teachings and a small amount of inference and research, and I completed the assignment in just a few hours. I had to read out of a textbook to understand new concepts, but the work itself was fairly simple. It's these kinds of summer assignments that students would be able to effectively compose, because they do in fact want a healthy challenge, just not an impossible feat. The difficulty levels should vaguely coincide with whatever class the work is preparing students for, without giving them the feeling that they are already back in school.

The last point is knowing what's necessary and what isn't. For example, a long assignment for an optional music class seems rather unnecessary compared to simply suggesting practice over the summer. If students were required to have a lengthy project for every single class that they planned on taking the upcoming school year, summer wouldn't exactly be much different than every other month. Students don't need a complete break, but they also don't need three more months consisting of the same grueling and tasking work. I do think that AP classes should be handing out summer assignments. But academic courses? That's for the teachers to decide.

In conclusion, students are smart enough to form their own summer assignments that follow the basic guidelines given by teachers. They know how to wisely create a project that doesn't absorb too much or too little time, isn't too easy or too hard, and is completely necessary for staying on track in school. Not every student would be willing to work on an idea for a project that would be assigned to each of their classmates, but every grade has several bright and accomplished achievers who would take up the challenge. Students know their own limits. We can set them for ourselves.