In school these days, summer projects are assigned in order to keep work ethic up, but, they should be student designed. There is an ongoing debate on whether summer projects should be student or teacher designed. Those who disagree with student designed summer projects say that teachers will make more rigorous projects and since they are teachers they know best; however, this is wrong. Student designed projects are best because they are more creative, will use new technology, and in the end students are the ones completing the projects.

There are a multitude of reasons why students should be able to design their own projects; such as, they have to do the project. Since students will be the ones even doing summer projects, they will design something with their capabilities. Unlike teachers, who may disregard ability and force students to do something extravagant and time consuming, students know what they can and can not do, allowing for projects that do not cause too much stress. Student designed projects will also generally be more enjoyable. Completing a project that one designed them self is far more rewarding than doing the same boring project. Along with this, projects can be tailored more to them. Many teacher projects are a one size fits all and don't take into account different schedules and interests. Students can design projects with their schedule so they are cramming to do it, and can be inspired by their own interests so they are more inclined to do it. On top of all of this, students designed projects will just be easier. Summer break is a vacation and many student will not want to be thinking or doing an enormous project, so summer projects should be easier than school year projects. Teachers would not take this factor into account and stress their students out when they are supposed to be relaxing.

Some other reasons that students should be able to design their own projects are that students can come up with new ideas that are modern. For instance, students know how to utilize new technology and can use it to help them develop projects that are new. Technology can also be more accessible if students are on vacation, so they can work on it from anywhere. Teachers tend to neglect this, and reuse the same project from years ago that do not acknowledge the new capabilities technology has, this makes projects outdated and boring. Student designed projects will also be more creative. Teachers make projects nigh a hundred times, they will use the same method yielding the same kind of structure. Fresh ideas will avoid the drag of doing something that students have done also nigh a hundred times, making projects more compelling. New ideas to the table will as well add variance. It is almost with certainly that teachers get bored grading the same project year after year, well, students can prevent that with new, creative projects. Another reason is that designing a project help builds life skills needed for the work force. Making a project rubric and guidelines are not easy, it will require coming up with a solution. Decisions can be hard to make, giving students a chance to experience something they will as an adult. Taking charge and maintaining the energy through out the project is also good for building experience. Even if a student does not want to do a project, they still have to be able to power through it, which is a feeling most people with jobs feel.

Student designed projects for the summer are better than teacher designed projects for many reasons. They are better because students can be more creative, they know their capabilities more, and can utilize new technology. Those will disagree say that teacher designed summer projects are better because they will create harder, more rigorous projects and they know best as teachers, but this is just simply not true. This is important topic because every summer students are subjected to projects with no student input, and this should change.