Lazy group member - let him burn?

Parents Forum
41

<p>I consider myself lucky that for my own kids, their professors acknowledged who actually did the work and produced results. </p>

<p>I disagree that it is different in the workplace because people are rewarded properly. That has certainly not been my experience. What was more important was who you knew, and established relationships. </p>

<p>The reason I say it is good to get the experience now is because it gives the student the ability to see how this situation works out in practice, before they are in a job. A class lasts a few months and then you move on. It’s a good time to experience the (intense) frustration and learn methods to deal with it before you enter the workforce. </p>

<p>You can tell your kid a hundred times how to deal with something and they won’t really know until it happens to them. So yes, I’m glad my kids were forced to work with slackers. It was short term aggravation for long term gain. They learned diplomacy and assertiveness. I’m finally getting something back for those tuition dollars besides how to compare and contrast 2 essays.</p>

42

<p>I think it is some laziness on the part of teachers who ALWAYS assign strong students to weak slackers and is really unfair. It IS, of course, part of life. S did learn not to trust promises of people who turn out fickle and cause problems because they decided they wanted some other partner at the last minute but didn’t bother to tell him. Lessons learned.</p>

43

<p>Not sure about college, but I think K-12 teachers like group projects not just because it’s one of those trendy things they are supposed to be teaching, but also because it’s an easy way to prop up the grades of the weak students so that no one fails and everyone is happy. Except the students who had to do their work for them. The same goes for group tests.</p>