To every group I have ever worked in, worked with, or caused students to do for an assignment:

 

To work in a group or not work in a group, that is the question.

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous personalities

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing get a grade you actually deserve. To group—to enjoy your class

No more; and by enjoying your class to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand sleepless nights

That a masters degree is heir to: ’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish’d. To group, to enjoy

To enjoy, perchance to further your studies—ay, there’s the rub:

For in the enjoyment of group work what skills may come,

When we have received that expensive scroll,

Must give us pause—there’s the understanding

That makes group work so applicable

For how would we bear the whips and scorns of a career

Th’ pushy opinion, the proud man’s stubbornness

The pangs of rejected ideas, the boss’s delay,

The miscommunication in the office, and the spurns

That patient waiting of the’ best idea takes,

When we ourselves might our patience make

With a person who is very wrong? Who would deal with others

To grunt and sweat emotionally with difficult people

But that the dread of the consequence of not following through with the project

The unemployment agency, from whose bourn

No traveller finds a solid career, puzzles the worth,

And makes us rather bear those dysfunctional groups we have

Than fly to careers that we know not of?

Thus knowing better does make us work together still

And thus the constant threat of group work

Is not rebelled because of the better understanding

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this want to rebel their currents

And just do the project alone.

---Samantha Weed
Samantha Weed is a Masters student in the College of Education