“...group project…” Your eyes meet from across the room and you know that you’ll be working together. You both grin. You’re really excited; you’ve been working on your homework together all year, but this is different. “...and I’ll be choosing your partners…” What?!
Everyone has been here before. A lot of teachers assign group projects, and that is completely okay with you. You get to work with your friend, you can choose what you do your project on, you know how to work well together, and it gives you an excuse to spend time with each other while actually doing your homework. And then you find out that you don’t get to choose your partner.
Are you kidding me? So you’re telling me that I’m going to have to work with someone to receive a joint, or at least partially joint, grade on an assignment and I don’t even get to choose who that person is? That’s absolutely ridiculous. And the teacher’s reason for assigning partners is always the same: people don’t do their work when they pick their friends, or only one friend does the work.
It’s that student’s grade, if they decide to pick their best friend as their partner and then choose not to do the project the only person it’s affecting is them and their friend, who made their own decision. Why should you care about their grade if they don’t? And if one of the friends knows they’ll have to do all the work and still chooses the other friend as their partner, that was their choice. Besides, chances are that even if you do assign the slacker a partner, they’re still not going to do their work; you’re just causing some other poor kid to take the fall for it.
Also, not everyone automatically just picks their best friend so that they can slack off together. Not everyone even picks their best friend. I happen to pick the person in the room that I know will help me and get us the best academic grade, which so happens to be my friend. What can I say? All my friends are overachievers too; we travel in groups.
My friends know my strengths and weaknesses in and out of school, so they know what part of the project I absolutely can not do. When I work with my friends, I know I’m not going to get stuck doing something when I have no idea how to do it. My friends and I work together extremely well, and we know how to cooperate. This means that our project is going to turn out much better than it would if we were working with anyone else.
When I have to do a group project with an assigned partner, I always get stuck with the worst partner in the world. There are so many different scenarios in which this could go wrong. I can get stuck with the person that literally does nothing on the project and then gets half of the grade I earned alone, or I could get stuck with the person who assures me they’ll do their half, and then does nothing, still causing me to get stuck with a bad grade.
There is also the partner who tries to help, but has no idea what’s actually going on, causing them to do everything wrong, again causing me to get a bad grade. Then there’s the scenario where you get stuck with your complete opposite or someone you can’t work with. You can’t agree with this partner, so you don’t get anything done, or you both do opposing projects. Do you hear that? That’s yet another way assigning partners can get you a really bad grade. To be completely honest, my responsible friends are the only people I trust with my grade, which I might add is really important to me. It’s my precious.
It’s a lot more practical to do your project with friends anyway, especially when you have to work on it outside of school. I don’t want to spend time with someone that I barely know outside of the classroom; it’s seriously awkward. Not only that, but my parents aren’t going to let me spend time somewhere alone with someone that I don’t know and they don’t know. I’m also not allowed to bring people, especially people I don’t know very well, home. My parents barely let me go anywhere with my friends, and I’ve had the same friends for years, and my teachers think they’re gonna be cool with me just going anywhere with a person that I’ve barely said five words to?
Then you have the only other reason that a teacher assigns you partners: to get to know other people and get out of your “comfort zone”. I will have you know that I am fully capable of making friends on my own, thank you very much. I have been doing it my entire life, and I don’t need your help. If I wanted to be friends with any other person in the classroom, I would be. Not to mention that I am completely comfortable in my comfort zone, that’s why they call it a comfort zone, and if I wanted out of said zone, I would have found a way by now.
So teachers, let students make their own choices, both in their social life and for their academic future. We’re not going to be able to rely on teachers and parents forever, and we’re going to have to make our own decisions eventually. Let us start with something small like picking our own partner.
By Shanda Johnes
Everyone has been here before. A lot of teachers assign group projects, and that is completely okay with you. You get to work with your friend, you can choose what you do your project on, you know how to work well together, and it gives you an excuse to spend time with each other while actually doing your homework. And then you find out that you don’t get to choose your partner.
Are you kidding me? So you’re telling me that I’m going to have to work with someone to receive a joint, or at least partially joint, grade on an assignment and I don’t even get to choose who that person is? That’s absolutely ridiculous. And the teacher’s reason for assigning partners is always the same: people don’t do their work when they pick their friends, or only one friend does the work.
It’s that student’s grade, if they decide to pick their best friend as their partner and then choose not to do the project the only person it’s affecting is them and their friend, who made their own decision. Why should you care about their grade if they don’t? And if one of the friends knows they’ll have to do all the work and still chooses the other friend as their partner, that was their choice. Besides, chances are that even if you do assign the slacker a partner, they’re still not going to do their work; you’re just causing some other poor kid to take the fall for it.
Also, not everyone automatically just picks their best friend so that they can slack off together. Not everyone even picks their best friend. I happen to pick the person in the room that I know will help me and get us the best academic grade, which so happens to be my friend. What can I say? All my friends are overachievers too; we travel in groups.
My friends know my strengths and weaknesses in and out of school, so they know what part of the project I absolutely can not do. When I work with my friends, I know I’m not going to get stuck doing something when I have no idea how to do it. My friends and I work together extremely well, and we know how to cooperate. This means that our project is going to turn out much better than it would if we were working with anyone else.
When I have to do a group project with an assigned partner, I always get stuck with the worst partner in the world. There are so many different scenarios in which this could go wrong. I can get stuck with the person that literally does nothing on the project and then gets half of the grade I earned alone, or I could get stuck with the person who assures me they’ll do their half, and then does nothing, still causing me to get stuck with a bad grade.
There is also the partner who tries to help, but has no idea what’s actually going on, causing them to do everything wrong, again causing me to get a bad grade. Then there’s the scenario where you get stuck with your complete opposite or someone you can’t work with. You can’t agree with this partner, so you don’t get anything done, or you both do opposing projects. Do you hear that? That’s yet another way assigning partners can get you a really bad grade. To be completely honest, my responsible friends are the only people I trust with my grade, which I might add is really important to me. It’s my precious.
It’s a lot more practical to do your project with friends anyway, especially when you have to work on it outside of school. I don’t want to spend time with someone that I barely know outside of the classroom; it’s seriously awkward. Not only that, but my parents aren’t going to let me spend time somewhere alone with someone that I don’t know and they don’t know. I’m also not allowed to bring people, especially people I don’t know very well, home. My parents barely let me go anywhere with my friends, and I’ve had the same friends for years, and my teachers think they’re gonna be cool with me just going anywhere with a person that I’ve barely said five words to?
Then you have the only other reason that a teacher assigns you partners: to get to know other people and get out of your “comfort zone”. I will have you know that I am fully capable of making friends on my own, thank you very much. I have been doing it my entire life, and I don’t need your help. If I wanted to be friends with any other person in the classroom, I would be. Not to mention that I am completely comfortable in my comfort zone, that’s why they call it a comfort zone, and if I wanted out of said zone, I would have found a way by now.
So teachers, let students make their own choices, both in their social life and for their academic future. We’re not going to be able to rely on teachers and parents forever, and we’re going to have to make our own decisions eventually. Let us start with something small like picking our own partner.
By Shanda Johnes