The concept of summer break presents many flaws to the school system. It causes students to lose vital information they learned the year prior and creates a lazy atmosphere with the absence of work. The clear solution to this is summer assignments and projects, yet some wonder who deserves to decide what the projects should consist of. Summer projects, a key tool to ensure continued enrichment, should be student designed to allow opportunities for creativity, increased enjoyment while working, as well as higher rates of motivation to continuously work on the project in order to nurture passion and a love for this work within students.

During the school year teachers are obligated to obtain a set amount of grades and fit a certain curriculum, yet during summer these rules no longer apply. This leaves summer as the perfect time to allow for creativity with learning. One such example is the Sustainable Technology Class. This is a project driven class where students are given guidelines to fulfill and that is it. Many of the students taking this course have a passion for the material and need a chance to see all of the possibilities it can hold. With this class specific, originality could lead to a revolutionary invention, such as electricity generating bicycles or solar powered toys. Through this experience a student can truly fall in love with the world of science and decide to create a career out of it. A cpncept very similar to professors being able to do any research they can get approved within their budget. Also, including student led work could help school systems break the factory system pattern of the school year in which you do your assigned work and keep the classroom silent. Our current system, where students have very little say, easily leads to anxiety, exhaustion, and eventually, for some, fully dropping out of high school. By offering a chance to have a self designed, teacher approved project, students can fully appreciate knowledge in a way the benefits the individual.

Once the door to creativity and choice has been opened, enjoyment has to follow. In 1800's France, a new style of art was emerging, impressionism. If these talented and famous painters, such as Monet and Van Gogh, solely followed the advice of their instructors and refused to step out to paint what they enjoy, we would not have beautiful works like Starry Night. If they had not branched out and followed their intuition and joy, they may never have continued painting due to constant belittlement of the art style they preferred. Our museums would be repetitions of the same work with very little diversity. This is true for essentially all art, another example of this is the Rock Revolution. If stars such as Elvis and the Beatles only followed the era of Big Band music and never were allowed to play and create what they enjoyed, music could have never evolved. With each generation, the world learns more and more. Advancements would never occur if every project was solely based off of the knowledge of the teacher.

Finally, for the average student, September through June is an endless pattern of early mornings, tests, and work sheets created by their teachers. More importantly September through June is a pattern of procrastination for many students. Due to dread about a certain assignment or just plain boredom, work piles up and leaves the student to rush through it carelessly before the due date. A perfect example of this is Love Canal, New York. In the 1970's a community was built over a former dumping ground for radioactive waste. The families quickly noticed issues such as minor chemical burns from the grass and black sludge seeping into their houses, but the government ignored the growing tragedy. There was no action taken until 18 out of 21 children were born with severe chromosomal defects. By this point, the government was forced to spend thousands of dollars in relocating the families as well as reparations, hospital bills, and environmental recovery. If they had not procrastinated, then it would have been considerably less expensive and would not have been as horrific as it ended up being. While this example may not directly highlight the issues within teacher driven projects, it does show what a consistent habit of procrastination can lead to. Which is what the school system instills in students by not allowing decision making. It is undeniable that when people care about the project being done, they are will put time and energy into it through out the whole experience, not just the ending.

While there are some benefits to teacher driven projects, such as the possibility for concise instructions and often an obvious path to follow, these just allow the students to be overly protected and lazy. This prevents the potential for growth that comes from creating something and succeeding in it without the help of an adult. It also instills the idea that there will always be someone telling you what to do. Which is very harmful once these students get to the work field. They will be unprepared due to never doing fully original and individual work, and the school system would be the one to blame.

In our modern world, we need innovation more than anything else. Young minds need to be nurtured, but also allowed to follow their own path of individuality and creativity. The only way to ensure the growth of these important traits is to loosen the leash and allow students to make some of the decisions. It is just one project per year, but a country wide switch could be revolutionary.