Lets skip the nonsense- kids get bad grades. But do you actually know the reason why? "Grades are contagious", says Hiroko Sayama, a system scientist at the University of New York in Binghamton.  In other words, if you sit next to a higher achieving person than you, your grades will improve.  In every group of friends, one person will be higher achieving - that's a fact, so it's true that even if you sit next to someone and you talk a bit, or "goof off" sometimes, the lower achieving one will improve. Whether just a little, or a whole lot, it will happen. Of course, people would have to be moved if it was a threat to anybody or they were actively disrupting class, but most times when people say that students are disrupting class, it's just one little word or comment. If you're like me, a person who got moved away from your friends, even if you still got good grades and finished your work, this petition is right for you. You'd get enough power to sit by your friends, but not so much it overthrows the teacher/student balance. Feel free to email me with any questions you have about the petition, myself, or anything else.

Sign below to give kids free seating at Hall Middle School!