Have you ever had a ton of school work to do during the summer that you really do not want to do? At many schools this work is required and is left till the last minute because it is simply discarded by students who want to enjoy their time off. Summer is a wonderful time for students and no one wants to spend their time doing awful work that is teacher assigned. Although many people may think that having teacher-designed summer projects would benefit students, in reality student-designed summer projects would be better because students would be more willing to do the work on their cherished time off, it would likely include a less time consuming and difficult project, and there would be less pressure surrounding the project.

First, If students were able to do a summer project designed by their peers they would be much more likely to complete it. As a student, I would be much more willing to do a student-designed project to keep my brain working during summer because in summer, I want to relax and enjoy my time off, and having a project that was given to me by my teacher would cause unneccessary stress. Many students just forget about school in the summer but if they had a fun project created by other students, it would be effective in keeping their minds working for those two and a half months. Overall, student-designed projects would be better to assure students are continuing to learn during their time off because students would be more willing to complete it and do it to the best of their ability.

Also, Student-designed projects would be less time consuming and not as difficult. It's well known that most students are not excited and willing to do work if it is a long, hard, and boring project. If there were student-designed projects, the long, hard, and boring part would go away because students would enjoy doing a fun project created for them, by them. For example, in my economics class last year we were given a homework assignment created by one of our peers, and the amount of people who turned it in was more than the average teacher-assigned homework. In spite of teachers and other adults believing that students would get more out of teacher-designed summer projects, in reality students would most likely want to finish and would get more out of a student created, shorter, less demanding project.

Finally, a student-designed project that is required would take the pressure off the fact that it is required because as I said before, student created projects would be less demanding and would allow students to get more learning out of the project. As a high school student I would dislike a high pressure assignment in the summer because we get more than enough of those during the school year. Summer is meant for travel, relaxing at the the pool or beach, and being with friends and family, and a high pressure project during the summer is the last thing students need to worry about. Student-designed projects would be lower pressure and would create a sense of fun learning during the summer that students would enjoy.

To finish off, student-designed summer projects would benefit students much more than teacher-designed summer projects because it would make students more willing to complete the required project and the project would be less time consuming and more enjoyable to complete, since it would be created by students who know what their peers want during the summer. And also, there would be less pressure for the summer project which should be stress-free and hassle-free. Overall, if a school is going to have a required summer project it should be created by a student to ensure the bright minds of students are well used during the summer.