The Tyranny of Seating Charts

Hello!

                In this post I’m going to discuss the pros and cons of a seating chart in high school classes. Now as I student I have to hate seating charts, it’s sort of a rule. But like most things, I’ve attempted to understand both sides of this argument, and hope it shows in this post.

                Seating charts are a useful tool for teachers. They allow them to see who’s absent easier, among other nefarious purposes that I haven’t caught on to yet. But the biggest reason I see teachers institute seating charts is to keep friends from sitting next to each other and babbling for an entire hour. This both increases the amount of actual learning and work done, as well as lowering the amount of inane chatter occurring. This is good for teachers because they look better as teachers, don’t have to deal with parents calling them to ask why their kid is getting an F, and don’t have to chow down on Tylenol like it’s candy.

                The counter argument to this is almost always, “but I work better when I when I’m with my friends.” And this may be true when it comes to group projects, in general it is not. Although there are always exceptions, you do not take quality notes when you’re talking about how so-and-so looks today, or what you did last night.

                But seating charts are not always good. I see the purpose of them in all classes, but I think they should be relaxed in certain cases. Foreign Language classes are one example. I had a teacher last year in Spanish 2 who had a rule that we had to sit in our seats during her lectures, but could move wherever we wanted afterwards, to work on the nights’ assignment. The “catch” was that we had to talk in Spanish to our friends whenever we could move around. I would say that I learned better in that class than any other course I took last year.  Language Arts classes are similar, especially If you’re doing a writing assignment. In my opinion it’s much easier to write great material if you have someone to bounce ideas and phrases off of.

                Finally, beyond purely academic reasons, seating charts could be more relaxed because school should be a social place. Regardless of what some teachers may say, we are here to socialize. Almost everyone has met a homeschooled kid who just doesn’t understand many of the nuances of functioning society, and ends up looking dumb when he’s at the mall, movie theater, or with other kids. This is because he hasn’t grown up surrounded by 1,000 people five days a week. So allowing us to socialize helps us to develop those important social graces we use later in life.

                Seating charts are good for teachers because they get more work out of us and don’t have to deal with us screaming in their ears for seven hours a day. But I believe that they could be more relaxed because in some types of classes students benefit from working with one another. Another reason is because seating charts help to restrict our socialization, which prevents the development of social skills that will be useful in the future. But in the end, students don’t get the decision. Perhaps this post could persuade certain Language Arts teachers to end seating charts in certain labs, though.

Thanks for reading!

Matt Finley