School projects over the summer are often boring, repetitious, and not engaging in a students interests or specific ideals. It does not have to be this way though, schools and teachers can change the way they assign and grade projects by simply allowing the students to take charge and develop their own projects. Summer projects should be student designed in nature as to promote creativity in the students, allow students to take control of their education, and give students complete and total freedom in how and what to work on. Students deserve the chance to prove that they can really be trusted to engage in their education in their unique and exciting ways, they should not be trapped into a small project that teachers grade all the same.

Many people would argue that teacher designed projects are better for students as they provide a clear and easy to follow rubric and guidelines for students to follow. While it is true that a clear outline and specifications would create an easier project for the students and teachers, is the point of a project not to challenge the students to work harder and show off what they know and can do? Student designed projects would not hamper the students by making each project a copy of the last through students following the same guidelines and thinking the same ways to complete the project. Students should control their own project and make it unique and their own special version of a basic idea that the teacher can then grade on a case by case basis instead of treating each project as something that must conform to fit specific rules. Allowing students the ability to truly have freedom is a far superior benefit than that of easier grading and simple goals in a narrow range of a teacher designed project.

Student based projects written without a strict rubric in mind will promote creativity and free thought in the students that have to create these projects. If each student is allowed to be the manager and creator of their own works then the students would feel more invested in their efforts and more careful and diligent in what they produce for their project. Students will likely think of new and exciting ideas to implement in their own ways and bring a new level of entertainment and creative thinking into what could potentially be a boring project. Students would almost certainly develop fun, intriguing, and totally unique ways of solving problems, showing off skills, and any other topics that they could think of. Summer projects could only be enhanced beyond what they are now by allowing students the creative and physical freedoms to complete their projects in the ways that they seem fit and are passionate about.

If students were allowed to design their own projects over summer then they would take more initiative and control over their own education. Students being forced to adhere to a code of guidelines and mandatory pieces in their projects would take away control from the students and force them to do a project thats been done before just with different words. Allowing students to take control over their education would also help to bring about an end to a problem many students will no doubt face; procrastination, as students would make their projects something fun and look forward to working on. In addition to ending procrastination, student designed projects would also mean students would generally work harder and care more about their projects as these would be tasks that they poured their heart and soul into, they would be individually responsible for their own success and feel that they should work harder and give more effort into this project that they alone thought of, created, and worked hard on. Student designed projects are no doubt the future of school work during he summer break partly because of their ability to give the students the pride of control and the strong sense of initiative that simply does not come from a strict, teacher designed summer project.

A last detail that proves student based projects are superior is that they give the students complete and total freedom over what to make, how to make it, and when to make it. This means that students would not be restricted to doing a certain task, in a certain way, at a certain time merely to fit with the guidelines of the project that they were thoughtlessly assigned. The freedom to create what they, the students, want is a feeling of euphoria for students, a breath of fresh air in the stale and often controlling school environment. Allowing students to have the freedom of choice, especially over summer when the last thing a student wants is to be burdened with a teachers strict code of demands for a very narrow minded project with simple goals, is a feeling that empowers the students and makes them feel as though their opinions, interests, and personalities truly matter to their schools. Allowing summer projects to be far more than narrow teacher created silhouettes of topics students dont care about could only help the classes and school.

To conclude this argument school projects that are assigned over the summer should be totally and wholly student designed with limited specific instruction by the teachers. Firstly, an open ended project without a strict rubric would clearly promote creativity and free thought in the students that must complete said work. Second, students would show more control and initiative over their own education and ways of completing broad assigned tasks. Lastly, students would be granted the freedom to complete and enhance their education and projects with their own unique interests and special considerations. This quite clearly proves that summer projects being teacher designed are inferior to those projects that are thought of, designed by, enhanced by, and supported by individual students and their individual personalities. All teachers and schools should absolutely adopt this doctrine of free choice and open thought in all summer projects.