Firing Squad: The Group Project

Graphic by Emma Novy

Why do we still have group projects in schools? They were created to “evenly” split work and “give students the opportunity to get to know each other”. They are the lamest excuse for so-called real-world skills. But how does a high school or college group project benefit from these skills when the reliability of teenagers is questionable?  

In every group project that I have been in since elementary school, I have always been left with the immense feeling of disappointment and anger. Math projects, English papers, and history presentations were never divided “equally”, and when they were, I was the one picking up slack for those who left things to the last minute.  

In all honesty, why is the group project still alive? In my opinion, it's time to euthanize it, take it out in the back and bury it six feet under. My hatred for group projects is unfathomable. It's like a rage of bubbling lava within me. 

This story comes from my built-up frustration with a group project I was in over a week ago. It was for my “Politics in Nationalism” class where we had to represent a stateless nation, think places like Wales or Hawaii, places that have a strong national identity but don’t rule themselves. I was placed into a group with a few guys from my class, and we were covering Aceh. 

We did what almost every group does like meet up, divide the work, think about ideas, break off and do our own stuff. I was in charge of writing the paper. But as the deadline grew nearer and the comms stayed clear, worry started setting in. It wasn’t until the morning that the presentation was done. Admittedly, my group members did their side of their work, but I laid awake the night before wondering if I should bite the bullet and do their stuff or go to sleep and have them decide if they wanted to present blank slides to the class.  

It's not just me either, It's generational. When I was telling my dad of my troubles with the group project, we had a whole breakdown of why group projects are the worst thing to come about this earth. Neither of us understand why schools still do them, and frankly, they shouldn’t. 

In my opinion, I think everyone should take a competency test before being placed into groups. Let's place people who need communication, orworry about deadlines with each other for groups. Why cause planners to suffer over being in a group with some frat guy who Chat GPT’s everything and doesn’t respond to his texts.  

I wholeheartedly believe that group projects were made to make professors grading easier. Group projects were made to grade big groups of people all at once, but they lack the ability to accurately and fairly grade people who actually do the work. To whoever invented group projects, you suck.  

 Now that I’m in college, I’ve hit my bullshit limit. I can no longer take the fakeness of group projects and their useless nature. Next time when there is a project and the professor mentions a group, my hand is up immediately and asking to work alone. I think 2026 is the year of group projects being out. Lets all be hot girls and guys doing projects by ourselves, independence is in.