Do I Have to Assign Seats?

I hate making seating charts.  I hate enforcing assigned seats.  I came to the realization this year that this may be partly because I rely too much on a seating chart to do the classroom management for me.  As in, if I could just come up with the right seating arrangement, I would have so many fewer disruptions and issues in class.

Even after coming to this realization about how I (unrealistically) viewed seating charts, and knowing that a good seating arrangement is not the magic answer to classroom management, I still just don't like making seating charts.

After winter break, I had my students complete an anonymous "teacher report card" which I wrote a little bit about here (I hope to really dig through their responses and write more again soon).  One of the most common responses to what students thought I should change was the seating.

• You should change my seat. And the seating arrangement. It’s hard to see with the sun glare and also from the side it’s hard to see the do nows.  
• The seating chart because we would like to pick our seats.
• Ms Ess should change having assigned seats that she picks, but have us pick our seats and tell her that’s where we want to sit until otherwise based on behavior and work ethic.  
• Ms. Ess should change around the desks.
• Let people sit where ever they want
• you should let the good kids sit in the back where ever they want and have the naughty kids have assigned seats

You get the idea.  And I don't think this is anything we haven't heard from students before.  But what would happen if I actually listened to them here and made this change?

My favorite comment is the one where the student writes, "...have us pick our seats and tell her that's where we want to sit until otherwise based on behavior and work ethic."

What if I offered to let kids pick their seats under the condition that if I ask them to move for any reason, they move immediately and without argument to sit in the seat I assign for the remainder of the class period?  As always, when I have to move a student's seat or ask a student to leave class for disruptive behavior, I would tell the student that they can try again tomorrow in the seat of their choosing.

For the first half of the year, they have been forced to sit and work with people who are not necessarily their friends.  I think this is important so that they learn to work with other people, and they share ideas with people who likely think differently than them.  At this point, is it necessary to keep mixing up the groups and requiring students to sit and work with different people?  Are there major benefits to a seating arrangement that I'm missing?  Is it just laziness on my part if I decide to let students choose their own seats?