A student’s nightmare: Sitting at a table with four other kids. Two of them you don’t know, one of them is playing on their phone, and the other is taking over and screaming at the rest of us. Somehow, the five of us are supposed to come up with something spectacular.

Students are often forced to work in a group, whether they like it or not. Students are pushed into uncomfortable groups and compelled to do the work with peers.

Some students like group work because they don’t have to do any work. Others enjoy it because it’s a social hour. There is always that one kid who puts in all the effort for the whole group, either they take over or they’re forced to do it all in order to get anything done. Few appreciate the real purpose though, which is working together to revolve ideas and opinions from perspectives other than their own.

I hate when I hear my teachers say, “Okay, so, I’m going to put you kids into groups so you can work together.” When students are put into groups rather than choosing on their own, most of us will be instantly upset because there are slim odds that we’d be partnered up with our friends. Most teachers may argue that working with friends is “distracting,” but working with your close peers can allow you to be more comfortable and honest when doing a project, editing or even classwork.

Teachers say that students need to interact with others, even those who they may not be best friends with. Though this works to create friendships and improve working skills in theory, often students feel uncomfortable and awkward working with people who they hardly know. If they feel it’s difficult to work with these students, most will keep their ideas inside, accomplishing nothing.

Though I will admit to socializing when working with my friends, it is a much different learning experience than with students who I barely even know. When given the opportunity to choose my group, I get twice the amount of work done. When working with my friends I’ve been more willing to put all my opinions on the table, and not be afraid of judgements.

Even when you can choose your partner, working with groups isn’t always beneficial. The workload is rarely split evenly, and some students get credit for work they didn’t do. One or two kids do all the work and the others don’t pay attention. These students then struggle in the long run because they are not putting in effort to learn from an assignment. Teachers give work for a reason and if someone isn’t forced to do it then they won’t listen or learn and end up not gaining important knowledge.

In general, all groups require doing work that students generally distribute to each other. If someone doesn’t do their work or is absent from school, that can set back the entire group and cause a lower grade for everyone in the group.

Independently, students can explore different learning styles and work at their own pace. In groups, some kids think that they can become a leader. Though that can help, the other students won’t gain beneficial knowledge and will not succeed in certain lessons due to lack of effort.