Summer break is oftentimes associated with the stagnation of learning, and the loss of accumulated learning from the previous school year. To counteract this, some schools have implemented a system of summer projects to ensure that learning never stops, even during a break. However, in lieu of traditional teacher-designed projects, students should be able to dictate, for themselves, what summer project they wish to accomplish. While some may argue that student-designed projects encourage lazy and uninspired design, by designing projects themselves, students are more likely to have the time and motivation to complete them than if a teacher had designed them.

By having students design their own projects, it increases the likelihood that they have some interest in the completion of said project. This is because by allowing them to dictate what their project is about, it ensures that the student will select a topic that is interesting to them. This concept of self-selection is already applied to schooling today. For example, the ubiquitous science fair. Within a science fair project, students select a topic and create a science experiment surrounding that topic. By allowing students the freedom to select and design their own science experiment they are interested in, they learn and engage more than if they had, for example, participated in an in-class lab. This is especially important for a summer project due to the fact that, during summer break, students would rather relax than do school work. Especially so if the alternative was to work on a project that they had no say in creating. Essentially, ensuring students are assigned a project they are interested in ensures that they accomplish some learning over their break.

However, laziness is not the sole reason a student may not complete a summer project. It is possible that they, or their family, have plans that conflict with the completion of an assigned project. For example, if a student were traveling to a location where they did not have access to resources or materials to complete a project. Or, if a student took on a summer job and the assigned task was too time-consuming to work on in conjunction with their job. There are a variety of reasons a student may not be able to complete a project. It is impossible for a teacher to take all possible factors into account for each of their students to design a project that is compatible with their summer plans. By allowing students to design their own projects instead, each student can individually design their project in a way that is compatible with the existing summer plans.

On the other hand, some may argue that allowing students to design their own project encourages the design of lazy, easy, and uninspired projects. After all, why would a student intentionally design a complex project for a time span intended to be a break? However, both teacher-designed and student-designed projects open up the possibility of lazy work. Teacher-designed projects will inevitably suffer from lazy work while student-designed projects can suffer from lazy design. Either way, students will find ways to work less over their break. However, this assumes that students can design their project without supervision. By requiring teacher approval of a project, teachers can ensure that students design a project that is worth completing, while retaining all other benefits of a student-designed project.

While some may argue that student-designed projects will lead to lazy project design, this can be easily negated while also ensuring that students have an interesting project that they are able to complete over their break. By allowing students to design their own projects, they can choose, for themselves, an interesting topic that they are interested in studying. They can also ensure that the completion of the project is possible within their own summer plans. Student-designed projects lead to project interest and completion more than any teacher-designed project ever could. By having students design their own projects, it ensures a unique and interesting learning experience over their summer break.