College is a solitary mission, and to allow the work ethic of another person to be a factor in any grades received is an academic disservice.
The reasons that people attend college vary. There are people who go to college because they want to grow academically, while others attend because their parents gave them an ultimatum.
According to the Pierce College mission statement, the college dedicates its resources to assist students in identifying and achieving their educational, career, and personal goals.
It is the individual that the college seeks to assist, and personal goals don’t include the work of others.
It’s unfair to force people to work together in groups and receive a grade collectively.
Group work merges the unlikely pairing of overachievers with slackers. This puts added pressure on hard working students who often find themselves doing the group work alone.
It is not the responsibility of one student to pull the weight of another. Students that take on the work of others aren’t doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, they do it because they don’t want to risk failing at the hands of someone else.
Time is another negative aspect of having to do assignments with others. The work usually requires talking or meeting with members outside of class time, and for some, making time is an impossible task.
College is a place for people of all ages and the population includes, teenagers who are concurrently enrolled in high school, people who work, have families, and also retirees.
Employment status, having a family to take care, and other obligations are determinates when planning out a class schedule.
Imagine being a mother who works a full-time job, attends school at night, and chauffeurs her children around to their various activities on weekends, who spent hours meticulously planning her schedule so that there will be enough time to do everything that needs to be done. Being told to make time for a group project is something she just can’t do.
It’s hard for anyone who has a life outside of college, which most students do. School is stressful enough, instructors don’t need to add to that stress by making students rely on strangers to do well in their classes.
Degrees have one name printed on them, and that’s the person who put in the time, effort, and hard work it takes to earn one. It may take a village to raise a child, but it only takes one person to make the grade and graduate.