Some people are highly skilled at getting out of doing any actual work… that is, until they meet their match. We're used to seeing this dynamic play out in work environments or in certain relationship dynamics, but one of the earliest examples of this kind of flawed collaboration is the group project. Group projects don't necessarily teach you about collaboration; if anything, they teach you about how to deal with the givers and takers of this world. That is the only silver lining with a group…

These group projects are teaching students some skills, just not the ones they expected to learn. Why do teachers assign group projects ? It's a question that countless students of all ages find themselves asking year after year. Teachers were once students themselves. Did they all just have a great time with their own group projects ? Or did they think the hardships (ie. trying to schedule a time for 5 people to meet up; realizing the night it's due that no one has worked on the project) were…

This epic mode of payback has people divided over whether or not this teacher is a brilliant mastermind or entirely out-of-line. Truth be told, it's a very tough call. On the one hand, we love when students who think they can get away with manipulating their teachers get their well-deserved comeuppance. On the other, it's clear from this teacher's first-person account of the whole debacle that they got a lot of joy out of radically affecting the future of these kids, particularly when it came t…

Group projects are the worst. Let's face it, no one has ever been a part of one and had a good time… except for the people who are getting a passing grade without doing any of the work. Even then, are those people really enjoying themselves? Or are they just suffering through life like the rest of us? I've mentioned this a few times in the past, but the most brutal experience I ever had with a group project was also at the culmination of my university experience. My final project partially cons…

Every kid wants to do well in school without actually putting in the hard work, or maybe that's just me. I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, nor did I put in the work and effort to get good grades, and looking back, I can see how annoying that must have been for the other students, especially when I was involved in a group project. Those were the absolute worst… One student got really petty after one of his classmates tried to take partial credit in a joint project after not doing a singl…

There are definitely some (many) parables out there that teach us that we should always seek to rise above the actions of our tormenters, taking the high road and killing them with kindness rather than sinking to their level. Still, you'll often find that the reality in life is that this isn't always an option, and your tormenters won't give you any space to choose any other path than the one that has been provided to you. And, the one that has been provided to you (often of their own making) b…

School group projects are never divided equally, and one person always ends up doing the workload of everyone else. The annoying part in this (besides doing more work than you should), is that everyone still ends up getting credit. When I was in high school, I had to make a movie. Okay, I exaggerated, and that sounds a little more impressive than it actually ended up being. We were put in a group of 4 and were told we had to come up with an idea for a 10-minute film. Then we had to pick a locat…

There's always a bigger fish when it comes to the chain of command; if someone tells you they have the biggest and brassiest bells, you can almost guarantee they're still answering to someone whose bells are bigger and brassy-er. Still, people like to pretend that they're in charge and wield whatever power they have with impunity, and they certainly don't like being reminded that they do, in fact, answer to a higher power—especially when that reminder comes from some upstart students who are su…

It's no secret at this point that most people deride group projects, which are often little more than an excuse by the teacher to make students occupy each other rather than have to teach for that week. But, fair enough, it's a lot of work having a lesson planned for every single day of the week. Especially when that's in addition to actually teaching and then grading that lesson. Teachers deserve the breathing space, and putting a bit of the onus of their own education onto the students isn't…

Group projects serve as an important lesson to students to prepare them for the rest of their working lives. That lesson is that you can never, and should never, rely on any of your working peers for support and that you'll—more than likely—end up doing their work for them. After all, isn't that the biggest takeaway that everyone has from these experiences? Sure, it's not like you'll ever hear about or remember the time that you had a group that worked perfectly together, but you'll always reme…

Show me someone who has been assigned a group project, and I'll show you someone who has had a terrible group project experience. Although if the experience of having a bad group member in a group project is as universal as it's claimed to be… some of us must be lying. You never see or hear people talking about the group projects where they were terrible group members… “Oh, yeah, I had this project with Jennifer in high school where we were supposed to do an oral report on the usage of the ters…

Group projects only work if everyone involved has to be accountable for their portion of the work. But as you'd know if you've ever had to do a group project, that's not usually how it goes down. Professors seem to love group projects — maybe it's less work for them to grade if they make all the students work together. Some teachers will claim that working in collaboration with your fellow students can make you a better leader or communicator. College isn't like the real world, though. If you h…

It's no secret that we hate group projects; they bring out the absolute worst in people. But I'd also argue that group projects are one of the few things schools assign that prepares you for the challenges you'll face for the rest of your life. Group projects are important for teaching the challenges of communicating with entitled individuals, doing your peer's work for them, being graded on others' lack of participation, and having others take credit for your work. All of which you'll repeated…

Whether we like it or not, group projects are one of the earliest signifiers in life of who's trustworthy and who isn't.

No one likes group projects, especially not the person pulling the weight of the entire presentation . One unfortunate Redditor, u/grapeicecreamfloat, got stuck in that situation, but luckily they were able to enact some satisfying petty revenge! As they shared to r/pettyrevenge, this student got stuck with slackers in a project that was a big percentage of the overall grade. The OP ended up doing so much of the work, and the professor wouldn't help the OP improve the group's dynamic, saying th…

Revenge never goes stale.