An Essay on Summer Projects

Summer break for students is easily the best time of the year. Summer is time to have fun, enjoy the little things, and get into new hobbies. Unfortunately, these lighthearted and laid-back couple of months are marred by the mandatory summer projects assigned by their teachers. Instead of spending their time going to museums and looking at fossils, or rockets, or anything interesting to them, they're forced to do papers on old British novels about daily life in Victorian England. Instead of allowing these students to pick their direction in life, they're shaped into squares through the way that they're taught to follow instructions. Students should be able to design their own summer projects, to not only continue their learning throughout the summer, but to also inspire individuality, creativity, and even a sense of direction in life.

First, on the nature of summer projects. Summer projects are assigned for a few reasons. They attempt to ensure that students are doing some kind of learning over the summer. They also attempt to ensure that students do not forget how to learn. As for the success of this method, I am unsure, so I cannot say whether or not these projects are useless wastes of time for most students. On the other hand, in my experience, the few students who were told to do a project but instead blew it off, choosing to spend their summer time as they wished, tended to then also spend their time during the school year ignoring their responsibilities as a student. Those who did their work over the summer were more likely to be responsible students, making genuine attempts to learn in school. Through this correlation, one can assume that summer projects positively impact a student's education. Of course, correlation does not equal causation, but it does follow a clear trend.

Now onto my main assertions. By allowing students to direct and design their own projects, students will have to take time thinking of topics that they would want to work on, giving them an opportunity to develop a sense of self and consider their own interests. Time for introspection and the considering of options for the future are often skipped in schools, and the entirely open-ended nature of a student-designed project would be possibly a better learning experience than doing a regular project on it's own.

Students don't often get chances to exercise creativity during school. The only possible outlets are fine arts classes, creative writing, and the rare, ever-elusive, enjoyable project. An "enjoyable project" entails choices, certain liberties, and a chance to express yourself through your work. Research is still required, the learning still happens, yet it's an all-around more pleasant experience. While it might be easier for teachers to grade carbon-copy research papers on a choice between three topics, it's not nearly as interesting as grading projects on a variety of topics in a wide variety of formats. Giving the students an opportunity to get to show what kind of person they are and their interests helps give purpose to the projects, and teachers get interesting introductions to their new students. Through this opening of options, not only will the students still learn during the summer, but it becomes a positive experience for both student and teacher.

Through contemplation and research, students are given an opportunity to find something they're passionate about. This can be crucial for a student's development as a person, giving them something to think about and study for.

For example, if a student finds that they're somehow incredibly interested in the formation of lichen, they can load up on science classes and take high-level biology and environmental sciences and eventually become someone who studies lichen to make a living. And that's what school is all about. School aims to get people interested in learning more, and to prepare people to find a career they enjoy and can make a living off of. That'd be quite the productive summer project. An opportunity like that inspires learning much more than, say, reading an old book about a couple of cities and writing a paper on it.

None of this is to say that the project can't have limits, or minimum requirements, of course.

A very rough guideline is necessary to ensure that people aren't hypothetically turning in a project consisting of no more than seven dead mice stapled to a posterboard, claiming that they did hours of research to find out that mouse traps do indeed work as intended. Instead, students should be expected to show their research process, include citations for their sources, and provide annotations or commentary on why and how the mice died. Projects can not be productive if there aren't certain rules and procedures. The issue with teacher-directed projects is that there is no limit to the limitations they can put in place. If the project is meant to encourage students to learn over the summer, why should it be restricted to just a few certain topics? There shouldn't be limits set on a student's learning. Summer projects are meant to benefit the students the most, so why should they be held back from their full potential?