We hate them here, too. My daughter is also a very good, dedicated and conscientious student. Her problem here, is that she is also well behaved. She is now in 9th grade and every since elementary school she has always had to sit by or do projects with the not-well-behaved or problem students because the teachers think she can "help" them. It's not her freaking responsibility to hold their hands and babysit less dedicated students! A problem boy in 5th grade cut her hair because he had scissors and felt like it. We just had a conference with her Spanish teacher. She's always had A's in spanish. But now the teacher counts a lot on participation - not just with the teacher, but with peers. She assigns their seats. My dd is of course next to a low scoring student that the teacher thinks she could help. Well they are in 9th grade, they don't know each other and every time my dd trys to converse with him in Spanish he says "I don't know" in English! Guess what her grade has fallen because of particiption!

I know they need to learn to get along with problem kids and work well in groups, but when it affects their grade - there is nothing they can do about it! My dd has already brought home a couple thing she had to finish up for the group this year. One she brought home over the weekend - the other girl simply said "I don't have time to do this over the weekend - you have to do it." Of course, my dd did. Another one, she was up way past 11PM and exhausted, but it had to be done the next day.

Wow, long winded, but I HATE group projects, too!

Lisa

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