The American school system is unfortunately still on the fall-late spring school schedule, leaving students their summer out of school. Although all students would likely agree that this off-time is beneficial, the majority of students experience a 'summer slide' where they lose knowlede they have gained in the past year, and get out of the habit of learning. As a remedy to this, especially in higher level grades, schools assign summer projects in order to help students maintain the mindset of learning. How these summer assignments should be designed is very important to how the students use their knowledge during their break. If students designed the project, they would likely find the projects more enjoyable, but risk not actually learning much in the process. On the other hand, teacher-designed assignments may cause students to lose interest and not work their hardest on their project. Therefore, I think that a teacher designed, but creative assignment, would be most beneficial to students' learning curve over the summer. By assigning something creative with educational merit, students would enjoy working during their free time, learn new things, and prevent losing knowledge they have gained while they are on their summer vacation.

Having fun with assignments is an essential part in keeping young students interested in school, particularly when they are on a break. If a student is assigned something they find boring, they are less likely to try as hard as they would on a more creative assignment. Also, if the assignment is more open to interpretation, it helps students think more creatively. Students would be much more likely to complete, and better yet, enjoy assignments that they find creative and fun. Meanwhile, a student with a duller assingment would not put their entire effort into it, and would surely rather be enjoying their vacation. By making the assignment itself more enjoyable, students would be 10 times more interested and likely to enjoy it.

Though the creativity of the assingment is paramount, the educational value of the assignment is just as important. By having teachers design summer projects, this assures that the students will gain or keep their educational mindset and knowledge throughout their summer vacation. It's important that teachers do the designing of the project in order to guarentee that students are actually learning something through completing this project. Teachers should, however, consider the input of students while they are designing it, in order to make it more enjoyable and interesting for them, not just a boring assignment.

In order to make sure that students can actually enjoy their projects, leaving it open to some interpretation can help a diverse set of students come up with individual ideas for their assignment. This would make it more interesting for everyone involved, and would also prevent students from copying each others' work, as well as helping them nourish their creativeness while they are out of school.

By making summer assignments creative, but still educational, teachers can prevent students from getting out of the educational mindset over their break, as well as help them enjoy their work as much as they enjoy their time out of school. Therefore, summer assignments should be designed by teachers, but still have room for creative and original ideas that will help the students enjoy their work and their individuality as they complete their summer work.