Two words can be enough to send an entire class into an overwhelming sense of despair. With two words, students will start sending furtive glances to friends across the room, begin to whisper silent prayers to get paired with smart, hard workers, and perhaps you may even hear a sigh of relief from somewhere in the back of the class.
Group projects.
The bane of my existence, I don’t know a single person who looks forward to working on a group project. When I was choosing a major, I specifically looked for majors that valued independence. The less chance of a group project, the better. While I’ve never had a distinctly traumatic experience, the mere thought of group projects can send a shiver down my spine. Maybe this makes me sound a little too controlling, but at this point in my college career I can pinpoint exactly how a group project will work.
There always seem to be a few distinct archetypes that people fall into. There’s the overachiever: the one who must have control over the project, the one who won’t let anyone even attempt to ruin their grade. This person is helpful but often overpowering and alienating to the other group members. There’s the one who means well but may not be the sharpest tool in the shed. They continually screw up even the most remedial tasks, but they want to help so badly you end up looking bad when you ignore or correct their work. And then, of course, there’s the member who might as well not even be a member. This person never shows up, misses deadlines and due dates, yet reaps the benefits that the other group members create for them. We each have been in these roles, or dealt with people who fall into these roles. If you’ve ever had a perfect group dynamic in a project, you are a unicorn, as usually group projects entail a variety of different personalities collaborating to the point of clashing.
I do understand the real-life benefit of group projects. In the “real world” you will often be working in a group situation, having to work with people you don’t necessarily like or enjoy. It is a good learning experience. But in college, group projects seem to be given too much weight. In certain Capstone classes, the group project can determine whether or not you graduate. In an academic community where individual grades and competition reigns supreme this seems counterintuitive.
Thus, I ask the academic community to change how they structure the balance between individualism and group work in classes. Either continue to stress personal gain and competitive practice between classmates, or get rid of group projects. In this current cutthroat environment, group projects lead to more emotional stress than productive learning, and in general can harm a student’s mental health. While I don’t see group projects getting removed from the curriculum anytime soon, at least we can all hate them together and continue whispering small prayers for good group members.
Alyx Eva is a senior majoring in American studies and English. Her column runs biweekly.
