5 Reasons Why I Hate Group Projects

As the mother of a senior, we are now well experienced with 12 years of education behind us. There’s no assignment that causes more angst than “the group project”. It seems that teachers don’t “get” what their students don’t get. And, students being students, they can’t resolve all of the problems.

1. A student is not an employee/co-worker.
2. A student has very little autonomy.
3. Within the hours recognized as school hours or work hours, the student has very little say in how the day is scheduled. Most “grown ups” have greater latitude in setting meetings with co-workers.
4. When a student does most of the work, his/her grade can still be pulled down if the teacher feels that all didn’t contribute. In the workplace, only Dilbert’s manager would punish the successful worker for the lacking efforts of the laggard. The laggard may eventually be (un)employed elsewhere.
5. As our public school system launched the notable Seung-hui Cho (of the Virginia Tech killings), I wonder about the students who were required to do group projects with him. I don’t say this lightly. My daughter had an early project with a girl who ate lunch in the bathroom each day. That’s just not normal. And, generally, that’s an impossible teammate for a project.

Best Solutions for Students:
1. Get all contact information from each other as soon as the project is assigned
2. Set forth a schedule for accomplishing the project
3. Set meetings up front that can be canceled if not needed
4. Meet, conference call, or work in sub groups to accomplish the task
5. Do your best, be creative and act like you took the project seriously

Reality for Teachers
1. Group projects rarely mimic real world jobs.
2. Most of us have a choice of where we work. Most students do not have a choice of where they go to school, who their teacher is, or how to use their best area of expertise—there may be no application for the assigned project.
3. At work, it is assumed that most of us will be present within the framework of office hours and norms, and we can schedule meetings to accomplish goals. Students are expected to do most of their project work outside of school hours, where the task must be incorporated with other studies and extracurriculars. Put an in-season athlete, student government leader, and band member in the same project and they will have an exceedingly difficult time creating a schedule that is workable. They probably don’t even have the same lunch period.
4. Employees have company provided and maintained technology tools to allow us to create projects on the same platforms. (Between school and home, one is more likely to be confounded and demoralized by incompatible software).

###5. Create an alternative assignment. Please allow students to work in sets of two, rather than groups of four or five. Or allow a paper to be written for those who would rather write than meet, knowing the limitations of their own schedules.

(Can you get all family members to your dinner table every night this week?)

Surprise Visit to Phil's Charpit, Quick trip to Niagara Falls

In the midst of a college visit, we had time for a (2 hour) detour to Niagara Falls. And, I remembered that an old friend and her husband had opened a restaurant in Clarence, NY. I still think of Lisa very fondly eventhough --until Friday-- we hadn't seen each other in more than 20 years. Our friendship has a lot of history -- our grandmothers were great friends, our mothers were often inseparable, and we spent so many of our first 18 years together!

So, Friday night around 7:30, we found Phil's Charpit in a great small town east of Buffalo. Phil immediately recognized me as we walked toward the front door, and I heard him call to Lisa in the back. It probably wasn't fair to surprise them in such a way, but it was terrific to see them both. The restaurant looks great. It's a fun family place. Katie and I enjoyed our sausage sandwiches the most! Fried dough, known in our childhoods as Pizza Fritte, brought back summer memories from our youth. The restaurant is filled with memorabilia from our childhood in the 60s, and even a little bit earlier. If you're in the area, be sure to visit for a family meal!

Eventually, we had to tear ourselves away, so that we could take Katie to the evening's destination, Niagara Falls. Believe it or not, we spent less than an hour at the falls, before we got back in the car for a 1.5 hour drive back to the hotel. And then to Cortland to see the grandparents.