Summer assignments are known to and disliked by every students that has had to complete these tedious tasks. Schools assign summer projects to assure that their students are still learning during their breaks. However, as you grow up the tasks that are assigned tend to shift from something that is teacher-designed to student-designed. Some people may say that teacher-designed assignments are more beneficial to a students learning, because teachers know the material that should be learned and these project are easier to understand. However, they are wrong because student-designed projects have a lot more benefits that are necessary to a students learning and growth. Summer projects should be student-designed because they ensure that the subject of the assignment is relevant and interesting to the student and they teach them important skills.

To begin, student-designed projects let students pick subjects that are most likely to benefit them. Teachers dont know what field every student wants to study in, and so they cant make a project that will be beneficial to everyone. For example, the most common summer assignment is to read a book and then write an essay on what the student has learned, which helps kids in their reading and writing skills. However if a student wanted be a scientist, although this project would be somewhat useful, it wouldnt help them get closer to achieving their goals and dreams. On the other hand if the project would have been student-designed the future scientist could have chosen to conduct experiments or learn more about what interests them. Also, student-designed projects motivate kids to continue learning and so they wont lose interest. When a student picks their own assignment, they will be more likely to finish it and more than that they will actually want to finish the project. An example of this in a different context from my daily life is myself doing some cleaning. If my parents told me to clean, i will most likely put it off or do a sloppy job, because i didn't want to do it in the first place and at that point i am being pressured and forced to do the chore, but if i chose to do it on my own terms everything would get done in an orderly fashion. I feel like students use a similar mindset for completing project. If it was student-designed, they would be motivated to keep working and in the end they would produce better work. Some people may say that teacher-designed projects are better because, they focus on material that students should know for every career option, but they are wrong because what is important to learn in one field might not be as important to learn if they chose to pursue a job in another field.

Secondly, student-designed projects teach students very important life skills. It teaches them to be self-reliant. They have to come up with their own project and set out their own rules and criteria. They cant look back at the instructions and follow what the teacher said, and they cant ask specific question about how to do the project, because everyone has a different project specific to themselves. This type of project makes it necessary to think on their own and not get help or take short cuts from others. Learning how to problem solve and understand things on your own is something that will be crucial as an adult so it best to learn it at a young age. Also, self-projects help you stay organized. When you are doing something completely on your own, with your own ideas you cant lose or forget things because it is detrimental to your project. Unlike something that is assigned where you can just look back on the website or check the paper to find the answers, you have to keep track of everything yourself or else you wont have the answers. Lastly, student-designed projects help with time-management. During my personal project, since i had trips and activities planned during the summer, i had to set out a specific time line with goals that i wanted to have complete by each week. Before this project, I was very bad at completing tasks because i would always put it off until it was the very last minute. With this project, i was forced to do everything in a process or else i would fall behind. Students would not learn all these skills if everything was laid out by a teacher in a teacher-designed project.

Although teacher-designed projects are easier to understand and the teacher know what material is important, student-designed projects are a lot more beneficial to every individual student. Having a student design their own summer project ensures that what they are choosing to learn is beneficial and interesting to them. It also teaches students life skills that are important for everyone to learn at a young age. The point of summer assignments are to keep the student learning even when they are out of school. I think if the main goal of the school was to have students just learn information during the summer, then a teach-designed project would be acceptable. However, if the schools wanted their students to not only learn but grow and develop as young adults, then having student-designed projects are the better options to go with.