The idea of seating charts is a topic that has been debated for years now. Some people love it, while others despise it. A new system that is slowly being implemented in school is random seating every day. 

Jamie Ballard, math teacher, has brought in a system of having the students pick a card from a deck of playing cards, and that is where they will sit for the day. The only difference with this seating arrangement compared to others is that each day they pick a different card. Therefore, the students sit in different seats, next to different people. 

“As a student myself, I hated walking into a room not knowing where to sit, so I do like assigned seating; but a couple of years ago I started putting random seating in so it mixed up the dynamic of the class,” Ballard said. 

Lara Buter, 9, enjoys the aspect of different seats each day because she feels like she can meet and interact with new people. 

“I like how she[Ballard] does it because it’s not the same seat every day, and you get to work with different people every day,” Buter said.

With the system of picking cards each day, comes students trying to switch cards to sit next to their friends. Because Baker is in the class, he has some insight on the issue of card swapping. 

“I definitely think that there is some card trading going on before class, but I don’t think it’s a broken system. I think we’re all being involved in the class,” Baker said. 

Ballard observes that when teachers make seating charts, the students feel like they are deliberately placing them at a seat because of predetermined judgements. The randomization of the seating charts allow kids to take on different roles in the classroom each day.

“When you do a seating chart, students always think they are being sat there for a reason. So they think the teacher has judged them typically as ‘I’m the good kid’, or ‘I’m the leader’, or ‘I’m the bad kid’ So I’m going to mix all my good kids into one group and bad kids, so to speak…When you do random seating, the social structure changes because if you always sit with your friends, you typically know, or you’ve already predetermined who’s the talkative one, who’s the moocher, who’s going to be the ones who’s doing all the work,” Ballard said. 

Ezra Baker, 11, agrees with Ballard when it comes to teachers trying to move pieces together to make the perfect classroom. 

“No, I do not like seating charts. How are you going to tell me where to sit? That’s my thought process. I definitely think that teachers want to play the role of God when it comes to putting kids next to others like, ‘Oh I’m going to try to get them to connect, or I’m going to try to get them to not connect.’ Like they definitely play the hand of God, and I think that they can’t do that; you have to let nature take its course”, Baker said.

The randomized seating stops the false assumptions that students make. Ballard is going to keep implementing this in future classes and ultimately does it for the good of her students. 

“It’s a classroom culture type thing. I want people to feel comfortable here, and I want people to be able to learn in different settings. I tend to enjoy it, and I feel like most kids get used to it, whether they enjoy it or not,” Ballard said.