seating charts

Seating charts are a huge part of school up until you get into college. Many teachers enforce this to prevent goofing off with your friends and to achieve that desired silence. When kids are at the elementary and middle school levels designates this is a place where kids can keep all of their things and station themselves for the day.  Some teachers will just make it easy for themselves and place the students in alphabetical order, others might place them randomly. The risk that the teachers take by the random selection is that they might put two kids together that don’t work well next to each other because they are a distraction. Once school has been in session for a while teachers can pick up on who are friends, which kids don’t get along, and which ones belong in the front row because they need to focus. At the younger level kids need to learn how to take orders and listen to the authority, so this is just another way to help them learn these traits.

Moving into the high school level, teachers may let the students have more freedom by letting them pick who they want to sit by the first day of classes. Kids will typically sit by their friends so they are more comfortable and able to enjoy the class. This may pose as a problem because people tend to talk to their friends more than people who they don’t know.  The teacher will move problem students around once there is an issue. They enforce seating charts so kids can focus and get the most out of the material. Kids may not be too happy with where they are placed but in the long run it is what’s best.

In college there are no seating charts. The professor just assumes that you are a responsible adult and can choose wisely. (313)