The sound of the last bell rings, ending the school year once again until next September. You get off the bus and turn on the TV, ready to relax for almost three months. But, when summer kicks into high gear you realize that through the vacations and parties you have the dreaded summer projects to complete.
For most English, math, science, and social studies courses in AHS, there is a lovely summer project that corresponds. Although most summer projects are only given to honors or IB level courses, some students receive up to four of these projects each summer.
I began my well-deserved summer with three projects: IB English, IB History of the Americas, and IB SL Math. After the long moaning and groaning session towards these summer assignments, I was soon welcomed by a large yellow envelope that did not contain my final grades, but instead contained one more project for IB Biology making a grand total of four projects. Now I will say that none of these projects are hard per se, but the amount of time that will be consumed by each one is endless and is time that would be better spent doing things that are more productive.
The reason for the creation is to prevent our brains from melting into mush over the summer, or that’s what the teachers want us to think. In reality, these pointless “busy works” are doing nothing but make it harder to forget that school us closer than we think as each day goes by. Although some projects do help students prepare for the workload that will come when the new school year starts, our summer break is meant to be a time where we can all relax and enjoy the warm weather poolside or in some faraway country.
That’s another thing: Vacation. I know that when I go on vacation, the last thing I want to do is work on school work. Not to mention that for those who spend their entire summer away from home, they may not receive their mailed projects until a week before school starts which makes it almost impossible to get any of their work done.
In the end I’m not saying that a small worksheet or book is death. If teachers want to give something to spark our memory, I fully understand, but giving a student a 40 page packet with 150 glossary terms and an essay to correspond is a tad ridiculous. Then, multiply that project times four to cover every class and you have a summer’s worth of work to complete. Teachers, give us a break and hold the summer assignments until September because summer is break time, not time to think.
