Most schools will assign summer assignments that give students a preview of what their upcoming year will be like in certain classes. This also helps teachers because they won't be teaching a new topic to a bunch of students who have no previous knowledge on the subject. Having summer assignments allows students to have a foot in the door for a new class. These projects would be considered, "teacher-designed". An example of a teacher-based assignment would be assigning students to look into a concept they will be learning that year in the class; if you are going into Chemistry, you might be assigned to memorize the periodic table over the summer. I believe that summer projects should be student-designed in a way that students have the opportunity to refresh themselves on things they've learned in the past or just a few simple problems or equations a day to keep the brain active. Student-designed projects would be more beneficial to students for many reasons; they won't be as stressed out to learn a new topic by themselves, they will have the opportunity to refine past skills, and it won't ruin their summer break.

Most students in high school have a lot of pressure on them to get good grades, be involved, and stay out of trouble. Whether it be parents, friends, or teachers, every high school student feels stress. Summer break allows students to relax, hang out with friends, and give their brains a break. By assigning summer projects that involve learning a completely foreign topic, the stress of school is reignited and takes that break away from the students. Although assigning these types of projects would be beneficial to the teacher,

I believe it is wrong to make students feel more stressed than they already are just so the teacher can catch a break. For example, when I was in 7th grade I took Pre-Algebra. I remember it was a pretty hard year for me and I was so happy when it was over so I could relax over the summer. On the last day of school my teacher handed my a book titled, "Algebra 1, the basics". We had to complete an entire booklet on a math class that we had almost no knowledge about. I spent hours and hours over that summer trying to teach myself Algebra 1 just so my teacher wouldn't have to. This is just more work that causes unneccessry stress in students already busy lives.

Assigning student-based summer assignments would actually be more beneficial to both teachers and students than you'd think. Most classes build on classes that you've had in the past, for example Spanish 2 builds off of the things you learned in Spanish 1. Students are constantly learning new things and gaining new experiences. When you're constantly learning and growing, it can be easy to forget what youve done in the past. Due to this, classes usually begin the year by re-teaching things from previous years. For example, if you took Algebra 1 as a freshman and Algebra 2 as a junior, you would need to review some of those concepts you learned in Algebra 1 to be successful in Algebra 2. If this review work is assigned over summer, students will be able to go into Algebra 2 more prepared and it would save the class a lot of time. The time that would normally be spent on review from previous years could be spread out throughout the year and allow the teacher to spend more time on different units. This would allow the students to feel less stressed about learning a topic in a short amount of time.

Speaking of short amount of time, the summer is the 2 months a year that students can wake up every morning and not have to worry about pressing due dates, homework, studying for tests, or anything school related. I wish I could say that there shouldn't be summer assignments at all. However, I recognize they're important for success and are beneficial to us as students. Assigning student-based assignments are short and easy refreshers for students. I would have no problem waking up every day and doing a couple math problems from a concept I previously learned. Once you get going on a topic you once knew, it all comes back to you and the work should be easy. This is much less stressful than trying to teach yourself for a class you have in the upcoming year. This past summer I was given a summer assignment for my AP Lang class. We were tasked with writing 15 papers about different topics that we chose (with one topic per paper). Each page had to written in a specific format called, "precis". We were never taught about this format of writing so it made completing the summer assignment extremely difficult. After about 20 hours of work I was finished with the project. As a freshman I was given a summer assignment for my English class that simply tasked us with reading a book. Every day I would go outside, lay down, and read 30 pages of the book. It was a completely stress free experience that kept my mind active over the summer. I find that these summer assignments are far more helpful for students and their mental health.

Most students will say that summer assignments are useless and aren't beneficial to anyone. I disagree and can argue that anyone who completes the assignment is benefiting from it. By doing nothing over the summer, you are setting yourself up for a rude awakening come August 24. Summer assignments should simply be used to keep our minds in a "school mode" without us really knowing. There should no serious work or stress involved. That is why I believe that student-based summer assignments are more beneficial than teacher-base assignments. After all, the teachers are the ones being paid to teach, not the students.