The dreaded summer work, an activity each child fears as they come off a long and stressful school year. However, as children become more independent, they begin to gain the ability to choose and complete their own projects from the creativity of their own mind. The question still remains, are school projects better left for children to design and complete themselves, or should there be a specific set of instructions and guidelines a teacher sets.

Many children, with ages ranging from 8-17 attend summer camps and summer trips; occupying an otherwise long vacation. Students not only deserve, but need to be able to pick a project that fits in their schedule and can be reasonably completed wherever they may find themselves. Summer vacation is a long awaited break from school and should be taken advantage of, If assigned a project from a teacher, students may experience low motivation and stress in completing the assignment. Leading to ignoring deadlines, or sloppy completion in an assigned project. Through creativity, many students thrive. Having credibility on this topic, it is easy to think of a project and easier still to complete it within an appropriate amount of time when one has control over the topic.

While many negatives can include; abuse of lack of parameters, disregard of deadlines, and even failure to complete the project at all, there dwarf in comparison to the benefits students gain from working on a topic that excites and engages them. Many students, especially as they grow older and advance in grades, feel trapped and burdened by school mandated work. Believing it to be a chore rather an opportunity to learn as this work should be. Not only does owning the ability to choose ones project topic offer that taste of freedom students have been looking for, it gives schools a grasp of the creativity of their students: viewing what they can do without school assigned work and projects. In fact, many schools develop programs based on the specialized abilities students poses. In Generic_City, basketball superstar and community worker Lebron James recently opened up Generic_School, a school for young, talented athletes and artists, based not on monetary income, but on creativity shown by applying students. Furthermore, In Generic_City, Generic_School is a visual, auditory and creative arts school designed to develop attending students skills through art based classes. When applying, students are asked to either choose a piece that reflects the style of artwork they identify best with, or submit a portfolio of past pieces to be examined. Leaving much creative room to create a piece of the students choice. These two schools have discovered that the creativity and work ethic of a child cannot be measured in teacher mandated reading, math equations or projects, but in the imaginative, cognitive young mind of a student.

In eight grade, my teacher employed a new element into our lesson plan, a creative chapter called 20time; indeed, the term creative was not used lightly here, students were allowed to choose any topic and complete a project on it. From building boats to creating radio shows, the positive affects of 20time were felt by the students in my class. I chose to restore a two piston, five horse power motor. The addition of this segment of the lesson plan was beneficial in several ways, using one hundred percent of my own ingenuity, i was genuinely excited to tinker and attempt to restore the project i was working on. Teachers continuously diminish the gratitude and freedom a self picked project has, especially in the summer when everyone is attempting to travel or relax. While it is true that much of the years learning can be forgotten or simply isnt retained during the summer, a student should reserve the right to select his or her assignment; however, perhaps a compromise could be reached. Since it is still a teachers class, the project should be of the students choice; excpet, it must pertain to a topic covered within the year. Therefore, students still have the freedom and ability to choose what topics interested them, but the project still pertains to a lesson. While this debate may never be given the attention and research it deserves, the control and test group has already been evaluated, students should be the first ones given the decision on whether or not their summer project should be teacher dicated or not.

While many adults, educators and individuals would say it is in the students best interest to complete a summer project given by their teacher, many would still disagree, through examples of real school environments putting this form of creative freedom into effect, we have seen its affective and should be employed more often. Students thrive when given creative liberties, take it from one first hand! Summer projects should be chosen by students, it is our summer vacation and kids should be given the right to complete works that interest them.