Over the summer, many student spend their time doing nothing to keep their minds active and engaged in education. Many schools and teachers want children to continue creating learning experiences and mentally developing over the summer. One way they can do this is to assign a summer project for a student. While many of these projects might be created and outlined by the teacher, I personally think that Students should design and create their own individual projects because it would help them to grow as independent learners, it would allow them to create something that they would be enthusiastic about and would put more effort into. and it would also help the teacher see more clearly how effectively a student is progressing as a learner.

One important reason that summer projects should be student designed is the fact that creating a whole project from scratch would help a child to become a far more independent learner, and would prepare them for their later stages in life. When a student reaches college, it would be pretty overwhelming for them to have to take a bunch of classes that were all almost completely independent if they had never been given the opportunity to grow in their independence as a person in middle or high school. A student designed project might be quite scary for many students, but I think that it is definitely necessary in order to be set up for long term success in their personal endeavors throughout their later years in education, as well as their career afterwards. Many jobs are highly independent and require for somebody to be diligent in their own efforts. For example, my dad is an engineer, and he has deadlines that are agreed on by him and the people that pay him for completing work for them, and if he doesnt meet a deadline, the client would most likely not be happy and never come back to get more work done from him.

Another big reason that summer projects should be student made is that it would allow for students to be more creative, and work on something that they are very enthusiastic about, which would in turn make it easier for the student to work hard and do well on the project. If a student is assigned a topic that they completely hate, they would be extremely unenthusiastic about the project, and would definitely not want to work on it, especially during the summer months, when there are so many other things they would rather be doing. It would probably lead to procrastination on a project that would leave a student with not enough time to properly do the project to the best of their abilities. A project that a student is enthusiastic about could also lead to a student feeling confident in their abilities, and they would be encouraged to try their best and do well throughout the year to keep their positive momentum flowing.

It would also be extremely helpful for a teacher to be able to see how a student is functioning and is progressing on their own terms. At the end of the day, the teachers job is to guide and lead us until we are independent enough to thrive on our own. If the projects were self designed, it would be an extremely helpful tool for future teachers to look back on and guage how much work a student needs on their independence journey before they can leave without facing struggle or uncertainty throughout their life. These self designed projects would help a teacher to clearly see each level of assistance needed by each and every student.

All of these reasons that argue that projects should be student designed revolve around one thing: independence. I think that independence is the single most important thing that you have to prepare for in order to be ready for college. If a student was not independent in college, they would flounder around without being able to properly learn and develop the skills they need to succeed after college. Middle and High schools need to take steps towards challenging their students with independence to create self-sustaining, educated people that can truly help to make a positive difference throughout their communities and make the world a better place.