If there's one thing all students can agree on, it's that summer is the best time of the year. We can also agree that having to complete work assigned over the summer is the worst. Instead of staying home and doing a math worksheet for hours, most students would rather be lying on a beach. Summer gives kids the chance to get a break from the stress that comes with school and having to spend free time doing assignments they don't enjoy. Some schools have started implementing projects assigned to students for them to complete over summer break. These can either be teacher-designed or student-designed, which creates controversy. I believe that schools that require summer projects should be student-designed in order to build creative skills, allow students to explore their interests, and experience more responsibility.

A lot of students often feel stuck when it comes to working on school projects with specific guidelines and topics. Instead, these summer projects would let kids be creative in what they'd like to complete it on. It's very important for students to learn how to be creative, which many jobs need in the future. In the past, some of my favorite projects I've done were the ones where I got to have total control on what it was on. It allowed me to use my creativity for something different and helped me strengthen those skills. Students need to learn how to use their creativity to create a project to better prepare themselves for skills needed in different fields of work. Letting students explore their creativity also helps them enjoy completing these summer projects more. I feel that whenever I'm assigned something over the summer, I dread doing it and then end up finishing it at the last minute. If I had more control over a project assigned to me over the summer, I would have a much easier time completing it. Kids don't like to be constantly restricted, so letting them have creative control over a school project would result in better work. By giving students creative freedom over summer projects, they're able to strengthen their creativity and make a better project overall.

For most students, we don't usually get to choose which classes interest us the most until middle school. Student-designed summer projects allows us to explore things we're more interested in than what we learn in school. I've found myself feeling trapped in a class that I absolutely hate, which makes it much harder for me to do well in that class. When I get to use what I'm interested in to create something like a project, it's a lot easier for me to feel motivated to do so. In middle school, we had to make PSA projects for a couple different classes, which allowed us to choose a topic we like. I chose to do one of mine of adopting dogs instead of buying dogs, and I ended up getting an A on it since it was something I was really interested in researching and informing others of. Students want to learn more about topics that aren't taught in school and these student-led projects will let them do just that. Teachers can expected to receive much better work on projects that students are actually interested in, rather than a boring or confusing topic. This can also help student discover new things that they enjoy that they would've never found out about if they hadn't be assigned the project. New discoveries are beneficially to students who struggle with what they enjoy while trying to think about their future. Students enjoy getting to explain some of the things they find interesting in the form of projects.

Many students are faced with responsibility everyday, but if they have to create their own unique project, they get to experience responsibility that isn't always available to them. Students can learn how to be responsible by experiencing it from something they enjoy. A project that they can design is the perfect opportunity to explore responsibility. Doing those PSA projects was helpful for me because I dealt with the responsibility of completing the project better than I had before. I felt that coming up with my PSA wasn't a chore, but rather something I actually enjoyed. These projects can help teach students that responsibility isn't always something that has to be dreaded or feared. Responsibility can help build character and maturity. Student-designed projects allow students to learn that responsibility can be enjoyable too.

The introduction of summer projects in schools should be student-designed so students can be more creative, learn about new things, and learn how to be responsible. Many could argue that letting students create their own projects gives them false hope that most projects will be the same, but they also let kids experience individualism. Teachers would still have to put some restrictions in order to keep them appropriate and give a standard set of guidelines on what the materials should include. Letting students design their own summer projects helps them grow as they get older to help them for their futures. Many teachers should consider assigning fun projects instead of worksheets over the summer in order to get the best results from students.