vindication

[houselikealotus]

My abhorrence of group projects is validated!I've always found that being an intelligent person in a group of do-dos (most of the world) means that if you want to live up to your own standards and principles (or sometimes, if you want to get anything done at all), you end up doing all the work. If intelligent people got to work in groups of the

Comments

[flamingophoenix]

The plural of "onus" is "onera." :-) I think. Because the adjective in English is "onerous," I'm pretty sure that the Latin word is onus, oneris. And I'd bet a right bit that it's a neuter word, just like "opus." Yay Latin!

Regardless, group work should never be a veiled attempt at peer tutoring.

Ohsweetjesus you are right. Aaaaaahhhhh. After I left it (thank goodness), my middle school instituted the policy of "No honors classes, because it's better for kids to learn to work with varying ability levels." Which is just about the dumbest idea I have ever heard in my life. And (if I'm recalling things correctly) they expected the smart kids to "help" the slower kids, as well.

I'm going to stop before I stab my eyes out. But in sum: I agree with you.

[shard83]

See the fun of Virginia Public Schools. This is the Commonwealth that gave its standardized tests the name "SOL".

[flamingophoenix]

When I was in high school I wrote a haiku about that:

...Learning?

Filling in the dots
Raising standards, wasting time
We are SOL

[shard83]

I never had to take those stupid things, started Catholic school right when they kicked in. I did, however, have to listen to my mom complain about them (she was a teacher then).

[shard83]

I've had to deal with that stuff first hand. For almost all of middle school I was in the class that was half gifted kids and half kids at the other end of the spectrum. I like how the Germans just seperate kids out early on, keeping like with like to the theoretical benefit of everybody.

[dracis]

The only downside I see to that are late bloomers (*coughs*). I was in the learning disability section for most of elementary school, got out of it in middle school, and was essentially honors by my senior year in High School. How would something like that be dealt with? Is something like that possible in such an environment?

[flamingophoenix]

One of my friends was labeled "learning-disabled" around age 8 because she was so freakin' bored in class that she didn't do any of her work.

[pwylltwiceborn]

I was in a similar program for half of second and all of third grade--voluntarily.

My second-grade teacher was miserable--wouldn't let folks work ahead or anysuch...they segregated by grade level for math (1,2,3) and had a first and two second/third regular classes, of widely ranging aptitudes.

I think it works better for little kids than for actual people...

I never minded group projects--but I was the freeloader problem.

[wondershot]

If you want it done right, you got to do it yourself. Yessir.

[farrow]

e·pon·y·mous
adj.
Of, relating to, or constituting an eponym.

ep·o·nym
n.
1. A person whose name is or is thought to be the source of the name of something, such as a city, country, or era. For example, Romulus is the eponym of Rome.
2. Medicine A name of a drug, structure, or disease based on or derived from the name of a person.

i don't get what it means in the context in which you used it.

[wondershot]

It doesn't quite work in this context, but it's close. Eponymous means self-titled, but it's a little more specific than you think at first.

Like, the More Capable are kind of the heroes of the eponymously named Capable Of More-Land, or the characters of a book eponomously titled "More Capable", or the joint mayors of their eponomous city Morecapablopolis. The More Capable constitute the eponymously bannered six membered 80's ska sensation More Capable!, and the eponymous More Capable Way is a Roman road built in 367 BC by-- you guessed it-- Emperor Moreo Capablus.

So I guess a group made of people who are more capable would be eponymous, but only if the group were referred to as Team More Capable and not "the more capable group over there."-- an eponymous thing doesn't have to be a proper noun, but it must be particular (eponyms, however, can only be derived from the names of people, like Beethovian or Darcyesque) It's a word so ten dollar that you want to use it all the time, but so precise that it's hard to wait for the

[hamalkah]

hee hee.

[flamingophoenix]

Situation 3) The more capable let the less capable do their best, and the more capable do their fair share, and all receive a mediocre grade. The more capable, even though they are eponymously capable of more (!) get essentially penalized because their less capable peers drag them down.

She labeled the group "The more capable."

"They are eponymously capable of more."

I'm not sure it was 100% right, but it feels right enough to my brain right now and I ain't fightin' it.

[farrow]

also, it's sort of staggering that "Regardless, group work should never be a veiled attempt at peer tutoring." is still an issue in GRADUATE SCHOOL at one of the top universities in the country.

any way you slice it, though, group work in school is incredibly important training for the real world. most jobs involve collaboration. and all those problems you've described apply just as much in the real world. your whole team works on a project for a client, the project sails or sinks, the client likes it or doesn't, and you can't exactly pipe up and say "well i did all the work and had all the great ideas!"

as an aside, i have had professors give individual grades on group projects. i've never had a professor handle this well, though. professors obviously aren't easily able to discern who did what work. i had a teacher in high school who had us fill out peer evaluations after group projects, though i think we all ended up getting the same grade anyway.

[wondershot]

There was this one time that I was in a group in AP History class, and we had to research Ancient Israel, and instead I got distracted and read about Egyptians for the next hour and twenty minutes while the other three guys did the work. But when Mr. Stephens was all like, "Okay guys, it's time to grade your group... hey, what about Andrew, did he actually do anything?", they were all like, "What? Naw, he's cool." So I guess that was a positive experience I had with group projects.