Friends can affect learning

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Silvia Makori

This photo was taken to represent the way students affect friends learning.

Silvia Makori, Alexa Salazar
September 25, 2018

According to Reflective Teaching.co.uk, “One of the matters raised by students consultation is the fact that students’ learning is greatly affected by their friendships. The effect that friends have on learning can be both good and bad.

Mr.Gonzales, a sub at Dobie Jr High, thinks it’s OK for students to have friends as long as they aren’t a distraction in class. Photo by: Silvia Makori

Mr.Gonzalez, a Dobie substitute teacher, believes that it is good for students to have friends. In fact he said “Sure it’s good for students to have friends it helps them learn.” He also believed that students can be on there phones at night if there parents let them, because they could use it to study. Mr. Gonzalez said most friends communicate using phones, so this becomes a distraction. “At the middle school age students are addicted to their phones; they are on there phones about 60% of the time, and in high school it is about 80% of the time, it’s horrible.”

Ali Graham is a student at Dobie who believes having friends is OK and they don’t interfile with her learning Photo by: Silvia Makori

When students have friends in their classroom it can get distracting. “Students know that there supposed to come to school to learn, but if you have so much friends it gets distracting because they want to go look for their friends,” Gonzalez said. “If students have friends in there class they get tempted to get of topic, but it all depends on the student.”

Cliodna Kelly, an 8th grader, said friends can be easier to work with. ”When you’re in class and there is group work most people work better with friends than strangers.”

Another 8th grader named Destiny Beasley, said friends can distract you. “You get distracted easily and they talk to you which distracts you from the lesson which has to do with work,” she said.

Ali Graham said her friends affect her learning. “I stay up on my phone until 11:00 usually texting my friends, watching videos, and checking my Insta feed. I also hang out with my friends a lot, we kinda just sleepover all the time and we stay up so late,” she said.

When Graham is at school she prefers to have friends around. “It’s better to have friends in your classes because then I get to work with people I know and goof of with them. I also come to school to hang out with friends, but I still care about learning because I like some of my teachers. I don’t think my friends affect my learning in a negative way!” she said.