text: At most schools, you don't meet your teacher until a week prior to school starting. Knowing nothing about the class is a scary thought if you're spending hours a day working on a summer project, assigned by a teacher you've never met. If students know nothing about a teacher and the class they lead, how are they supposed to know if they're going to stay in the class? It's ridiculous to ask for a teenager to commit to an intensive project when they might only be in the class for a day. Most schools that allow schedule changes will forget about that grade if you drop the class early on into the school year. It may be nice that you don't have to be in that class anymore, but hours upon hours of your life were wasted on a project you'll never get a grade for. If students were able to design their own summer project, it would not only give them creative freedom but allow them to feel proud of what they turn in, regardless if they stay in the class. No student enjoys writing an essay every time they do a project, so if the projects were created by students the final results could be even more outstanding than what any teacher could've designed.