If you're ever in a situation like that of teaching something requiring hands-on practice to a group of people, you want to put the students on the outside of the U looking towards the inside and each others. This way you can stand inside the U and see what everyone's doing. It also makes it easier to demonstrate something to many people. This chapter's drama was completely dependent on the MC not understanding something we probably all saw for the first time in elementary school.
The struggle of wanting to spend more time with the gifted kid but the rest of the class is waiting is real though…