I believe that students should complete summer assignments even when they are not in school, provided that the assignment is provided by the teacher. This is due to the fact that many students would try to create easy assignments to do that require little effort, the assignment would not be relevant to what the teacher had in mind, and that it would be incredibly difficult for the teacher to gauge how much the student was actually learning about the topic chosen.

When students are given the liberty of choosing their own projects, many students will try to create very easy projects that would not challenge them. Summer projects are supposed to be mentally challenging for the student, which would be provided if the teacher designs the assignment. If a student creates the assignment on their own, it would be of a far lower quality of project unless the student was very academically minded, and cares to challenge themselves. Many students see the summer as a time to relax, and not do any work, which while that is a valid point, as students need a break after 9 months of school, as they believe they deserve it, especially after exams are over. The point of summer assignments though is to help a student remain prepared during the summer, as they might forget everything that they need after 3 months off.

Another reason that students should not create their own assignment is that it most likely will not be relevant to what the teacher is expecting. When students are given the freedom to design their own prompts, many would choose topics that they are interested in, such as sports or certain activities, such as going on a walk. Those prompts have a tendency to turn into a 'what I did over the summer' project, which is very likely not what the teacher wants from a student's work. Sometimes a teacher may want that style of project, but more often than not it is more academically minded than that style.

A third reason for a teacher to create summer assignments is that they are most probably being graded, and if a teacher gives the students free reign to invent their own assignments, it will be almost impossible to grade. The style of project would vary greatly, and it would take a teacher far longer to grade than if all of the students were given similar assignments, such as reading a book, and writing an analytical essay on it. What the teacher could do if the students desired a little bit of choice would be to give them several prompts to choose from, and allow the students to then do an assignment based on that. I myself have done summer assignments in that style, and they cause far less problems than from what I've heard from several friends who've had assignments that they get to decide.

Teachers should design assignments to be done over the summer instead of students, because if a teacher is giving the students assignments over the summer, they expect to not have a bunch of random prompts thrown at them, instead they wish to make it very easy to grade, as well as giving the students a challenging yet doable experience over the summer, while at the same time making it relevant to the class that the project is being assigned for.