Peers

I believe in peers. I believe in challenges in learning. I believe that a peer is not only someone who is in the same grade or profession, a peer is someone who is your equal in a subject, ranging from algebra to training for a marathon. A peer is someone who, knowingly or not, pushes you to do better than you are doing, by doing so themselves.

In school students are occasionally assigned to partners or groups for projects, which takes away the possibility for students to choose who they work well with. Although this can be defended by stating that many students are off-task when they work with their friends, many students' friends are their peers in their subjects, challenging each other to do better than the other. I believe that teachers should give their students the chance to use their responsibility to choose partners or groups they would work well in, although they should still assign them occasionally, so that students learn that they will not always get to work with who they want to.

I remember that when I was in fourth grade my good friend and I were in the same class. We had gifted programs together and were well matched in sports, too. In math class our teacher would give us a sheet with thirty multiplication and division problems on each side and see how many we could do in thirty seconds. My friend and I sat together and when I saw that he was a few questions ahead it pushed me to work faster and concentrate. I doubt he noticed that he was the one who pushed me to do well in academics, but I have him to thank for going from average grades in third grade to A’s in fourth. In gifted math we would work across the table from each other while we worked on logic puzzles, and told each other what part we were on and how close we were to finishing. This is my definition of a peer, someone that you can compete with, knowing that you will improve. I believe that peers of equal ability can push someone farther than they think is possible. This I believe.