What would your mother say…about cheating?
March 2, 2011
tooboots
It’s Wednesday, aka Moms Council Day. Remember? Here is the question of the week and my answer below. If you want to read the setup, as well as what the rest of the Peanut Gallery had to say, here’s the link. Hit or miss, I’d love to hear what you think….
Question: How far do we go to make sure our child stays at the top of their class? Do we apply so much pressure to succeed, our child is then forced to cheat?
Answer: “Children are faced with so many pressures to succeed as evident with Advanced Placement or honors classes vs. academic courses, and a horde of tutoring sessions and extra-academic opportunities. It seems children can jumpstart into any subject ranging from mathematics to literature. I encourage it. It’s a tough world out there, and when the time comes to make their mark, I want my children well prepared. However, while academic success is important, and definitely has some correlation to success in later life, it should never be achieved at the cost of dishonesty. Cheating is wrong, period. As many schools have a zero tolerance policy on bullying and drug or alcohol use, they should also implement the same when it comes to cheating. Perhaps if students realize there are solid consequences to their actions, they would think twice about taking this academic shortcut. Or study hard and make sure they know the material, because that is really the only way to make the grade.”
**Days after this question was posed, my son was involved in a cheating incident at his school. He wasn’t the cheater, but rather the cheatee (not sure if that’s a real word, but irregardless, it fits). His friend didn’t finish the homework, and asked to borrow his answers to a chapter review. The teacher found out and gave both students a big fat zero for the assignment. Lesson learned? Cheating is not just about getting answers, but the irresponsible giving of them as well. Props to the teacher, but it sucks all the same.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
3 Comments Add your own
Leave a Reply
Trackback this post | Subscribe to comments via RSS Feed
1.
mc |
March 3, 2011 at 10:35 am
Sometimes cheating may not be about academic pressure. It could be about being friends. In high school we had an informal study group (ring) that sort of “shared” homework. We divided the homework in sections and each person did a section–then copied each others sections. It was very efficient. Is that cheating? Part of the reason was to stay together in class. Specially in high school, you don’t want to be separated from your friends so we helped each other out every so often. No friend left behind.
Didn’t we “share” biology homework in college?
2.
tooboots |
March 3, 2011 at 10:53 am
Touche.
3.
the domestic fringe |
March 4, 2011 at 9:37 am
This strikes a cord with me. I cheated when I was a kid, because of pressure. My mother was a teacher in my school and not just a teacher, but my teacher. I was hung-up think I had to be perfect.
No, it’s never right. I guess I learned that lesson the hard way. My bottom is still sore. I grew up in the stone age when corporal punishment was still acceptable.
-FringeGirl