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Monday, July 23, 2012

Smart Kid Hates Group Work | Mr. Teachbad

Smart Kid Hates Group Work | Mr. Teachbad:


Smart Kid Hates Group Work

FAKE EDUCATION NEWS
–Queens, NY


(The most ironic and per­verse crime in edu­ca­tion today)
His­tory teacher Der­rick Barnes’ 12th grade class had just assem­bled into their work groups at Flush­ing High School in Queens, New York. After 10 min­utes of frus­tra­tion and futil­ity, Tyrell Haynes, a stu­dent in Mr. Barnes’ class, deliv­ered the fol­low­ing out­burst (recorded on a stu­dents’ phone and tran­scribed below):
I know why I’m in this group. Because I’m the only one who does any work, right? Tyrell, could you be the group facil­i­ta­tor? I’m sure Tyrell wouldn’t mind start­ing off our ques­tion map. Per­haps Tyrell could do all the work while you other four sit on your clue­less asses.
Well, maybe Tyrell doesn’t want to do it today. Maybe Tyrell wants to hang back this time. Maybe Tyrell wants Tryee to sum­ma­rize the main point and tell HIM what to do next. Maybe Dako­tah can lead us in a dis­cus­sion about ques­tions we still have. Maybe Car­los would like to lead us in our exam study ses­sion or the next time we brain­storm about how