Some schools require students to do self-assigned projects over the summer to assure their continual learning over their break. These projects should be designed by teachers rather than by the students because students are not knowledgeable on the requirements of a good school projects and will likely misconstrue major information needed in future study. Students also have the power to manipulate their grade, perhaps giving them an unfair advantage over others and giving them a grade they don't deserve.

When teachers assign projects and assignments to their students, they know what they're attempting to accomplish. They're aware of how the project will tie into later assignments and even the student's next year curriculum and standards. For example, in fifth grade, my sister was assigned a project to do over the summer in preparation for her sixth grade English class. Her teacher, Mr. Generic_Name, was aware of the type of assignments that might be handed to her come her first month of sixth grade. The assignment was to read and annotate a book, which Generic_Name, my sister, had never done before. This summer project helped gauge her understanding of skills she would need in the future. This project, which was designed by her teacher, helped her prepare for her first year of middle school because her teacher understood the curriculum requirements for her later years, rather than letting her and the rest of her class set themselves up for failure.

For a teacher, grading projects and big assignments is a part of the job description. Some teachers grade hundreds of assignments a day, giving each student a thorough understanding of why they received the grade they did. Little assignments obviously need less attention than the bigger ones, the same way teacher-assigned projects would need less attention than the student-assigned ones. A teacher has to go through and grade every student-designed project individually, reading all the different instructions and understanding the different rubrics. To further my point, the time consumed on simply understanding the directions to those assignments would be dastardly. Once, my seventh grade math teacher mentioned to his class that he barely slept the night before a big field trip that he was chauffeuring because he was awake late at night grading his students' projects. Rather than letting a student decide their own work, their summer projects should be assigned by their teachers.

Conversely, if a student were to design his or her own summer assignment, the grade they'd receive would likely be higher than if a teacher designed it. For instance, when I was a sophomore in high school, my English teacher, Ms. Generic_Name, gave her students a sheet of paper and a lecture. She told us that the only true way to learn was if we taught ourselves. She continued her lecture by telling us we had one month to design our own summer projects, and they'd be graded according to our own rubric next year, which would be written on the paper she gave us. Having the closed-minded attitude I did, I thought this assignment would be a waste of time, but it was the exact opposite. In the month that Ms. Generic_Name had left us, I learned more about my style of learning than I had all year.

Scanning the room at the end of the month, every student came up with an original and creative project idea, and was excited to complete it. The next school year when we went to turn in our projects, my new English teacher told the class that the reason we had all gotten good grades for our projects was because we used our creativity to create our own projects, and that we'd all participated in the development of our own learning.

For some schools, a requirement to insure learning over the summer is a summer assignment. The assignment could be designed by students or teacher, but teachers should be the ones to design their students' summer projects because they are more knowledgeable of the passing requirements and the the curriculum for their students' future study. Students should not be allowed to create their own rubrics or projects, because it will not teach them anything but how to pass according to their own set standards.