Do you cheat?

[ummmm........]

Yes ego is the main problem at this age. I mean the projects are stupid and don't teach anything, except to cheat. I don't think they are even graded or if so it's not that important but they are put on display . But what about the future. If you're the smartest one in class no problemo you can be high minded and do well but if there is rampant cheating and you are average then what morals do you adopt.

I guess I can't help that much since I'm not a parent (and don't ever hope to be) so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about things from this perspective. I would think that cheating would eventually have to catch up with you. At some point, you're going to need the knowledge, and it's that point at which your attitude will help your kids.

I always went to small private schools where actual cheating (like cheat sheets, copying someone else's paper, etc.) would have been too difficult to hide. But then when I got to college and had bigger classes, I was surprised at how prevalent it was, and how little was done about it.

I particularly remember a lot of it in Cal III, and I always wondered, are those guys engineers now?

 

[Mark1031]

I would think that cheating would eventually have to catch up with you. At some point, you're going to need the knowledge, and it's that point at which your attitude will help your kids.

I'm not so sure that most of what is learned in school is eventually needed. There are many things that go into success and I'm not sure that school knowledge is such a major component. I'm a research scientist and don't use or remember most of what I learned in science classes. I'm sure it's more so in sales, marketing, management, blue collar, etc. Maybe grades are just a puzzle to be solved and cheating is one solution. If you’re too dumb to cheat effectively maybe you deserve a less lucrative career.

 

[ummmm........]

Gee, cynical much?

 

[WickedSmurf]

I only cheat when playing poker with my friends.

 

[IglooDame]

I've cheated a few times in high school (don't remember prior to that). My conscience generally smacked the hell out of me afterward, so I tended not to succumb to temptation. In college there was an honor code and a single instance of cheating could get you booted entirely (and in the latter two years that meant going to The Fleet as an enlisted) so I took great pains to avoid it.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

Well everybody who claims to never have cheated says its because they didnt need to.

Interesting thought. I fell into that category as academics were easy for me. Don't know what I would have done if they weren't.

@Mark1031 - Understand your frustration, but I wouldn't get to worked up about it. I have a 4-yr old son. Recently we had some friends with the same age kids over. The one commented that I was mean because my son kept asking for help and I didn't help him do it. (I just stood and watched him. Of course there are limits, but I knew he could do it and sometimes asking for help is really just asking for attention.) About an hour later she commented that she was amazed at the things he was able to do on his own. Well, duh!

Give a kid a fish, he eats today. Teach a kid to fish, he eats for a lifetime.

Also agree most of the stuff you learn isn't needed. However, the ability to memorize can be helpful. The ability to solve problems is critical to most decent paying careers. It is not what they learn, but how they learn to think.

 

[Oruc]

in infants school i cheated, but i mostly didnt do the work, then in junior i worked hard because i didnt like being called stupid, then in Senior school i cheated as much as i could because im quite stupid and people wouldnt even care that i copied their stuff.

"can i lend your book i need too err... check my answers"

"yeah go ahead"

the they would just watch you copy all their answers, but everyone cheated like when you had to take a science test thing home, then she would read what the answer were the next class and too make it look believeable you just had to get a couple wrong.

 

[blindside]

I have cheated on tests before, usually it involves asking someone else who took it earlier. Once I got an answer key because there was a massive cheating ring and someone gave me one. I never did that again because I felt awful after the test.

Otherwise I do copy my homework from others and let them do the same with mine. You look out for the people you know.

 

[Masquerouge]

I did cheat once, in college. I still have bad feelings about it.

As for kids being helped by their parents, I say : don't worry. Let your kids do the work themselves, in a few years they'll do much better that the other kids who never learned to work by themselves. Getting the best grades in 3rd and 4th grade is not really important : it's more about learning how to work.
Kids cheating in primary school are in big trouble, IMHO, more than kids struggling.

 

[Mark1031]

I did cheat once, in college. I still have bad feelings about it.

As for kids being helped by their parents, I say : don't worry. Let your kids do the work themselves, in a few years they'll do much better that the other kids who never learned to work by themselves. Getting the best grades in 3rd and 4th grade is not really important : it's more about learning how to work.
Kids cheating in primary school are in big trouble, IMHO, more than kids struggling.

It is not about grades at this point but about ego. I don't think these things are even graded but as I said they are displayed which is even worse. The problem with this in all realms is really that if you think you are no good at something it is demoralizing and you will tend to avoid putting energy into it. That is fine if you truly lack talent focus on something else. (I don't put a lot of energy into art for good reason). The tricky problem is if you get a false impression of your ability because of others cheating. This may sap your motivation to focus on areas in which you are actually quite good.

 

[ybbor]

currently i've got a 4.0, and have not used anything close to resembling cheating to get it. I can honestly say i can't remember anytime someone tried to cheat on a project by using their parents help, my only exposure to cheating was in 5ht grade when i saw some kid glancing at my paper. i still don't see cheating going on. I may just be naive, but i suppose with my honors classes, the kids can usually do better work than the parents. This honestly comes as a shock to me; that cheating is so prominant in your school

EDIT: now that i think about it, last year in 8th grade, there was a lot of coppying math homework, and that still goes on to a lesser extent today, i do occasionally let someone copy my homework, but i figure it's not worth it to try and stop them, they never grade homework anyway.

 

[Masquerouge]

It is not about grades at this point but about ego. I don't think these things are even graded but as I said they are displayed which is even worse. The problem with this in all realms is really that if you think you are no good at something it is demoralizing and you will tend to avoid putting energy into it. That is fine if you truly lack talent focus on something else. (I don't put a lot of energy into art for good reason). The tricky problem is if you get a false impression of your ability because of others cheating. This may sap your motivation to focus on areas in which you are actually quite good.

Did you tell your kids that the other pictures were not done by kids but by adults ? I'm not sure if kids would be receptive to that kind of arguments, though...

 

[sourboy]

I think it's a matter of importance. If I feel my time is better spent focusing on an issue that pertains to me, rather than one I'm being forced to do for 'liberal education' standards, per se, then I will not disregard the option of cheating. I do think learning is important, so I would keep the cheating to a minimal. It's not like I would cheat to go from a C to an A, but rather a D to a C (hence a passing grade). I mean in school, history, literature, mathematics, science - that's important. Some of these second tier classes, even something like chemistry, really isn't. Knowing the past, reading & writing, calculating, etc is far more useful then mixing chemical agents that are not freely sold anyway.

 

[downtown]

borrowed a friend's homework once freshman year, and that was it. My class rank has plumeted because of my refusual to cheat. usually dont need to, but it would have come in handy a few times. my principals are stronger then my desire to get that 4.3. If I get a B, fine. I earned it. a B that i earn is better in my eyes then an A that I stole.

besides, what does it help? if you cheat thru high schoo,, you'll get your butt kicked in college because you wont know anything

 

[Oruc]

borrowed a friend's homework once freshman year, and that was it. My class rank has plumeted because of my refusual to cheat. usually dont need to, but it would have come in handy a few times. my principals are stronger then my desire to get that 4.3. If I get a B, fine. I earned it. a B that i earn is better in my eyes then an A that I stole.

besides, what does it help? if you cheat thru high schoo,, you'll get your butt kicked in college because you wont know anything

Nah you just cheat your way through college, twas what i did

 

[Mise]

I don't mind cheating off of other people, but when people cheat off me, I get proper pissed. Saying that, I've never actually cheated on something important.

 

[Colonel]

Wow, this reminds me of funny things. In my schools people literally discuss the answers during a test. The teachers just act as if they dont hear, some care about cheating enough to get people in trouble occassionally, but almost everyone cheats. I only really cheat when I dont feel like doing the work, usually though it would take me longer to cheat then it would to copy answers.

 

[Shadylookin]

I like to think of it as improvising. Think about it, in society we supposedly encourage people to work together and brainstorm to solve problems and come up with new ideas, but for the first 18-22 years of your life you are told that you're not supposed to do that. So I feel it is my duty to society to cheat

 

[amadeus]

In school, I'd intentionally write the wrong answers down on my paper simply to have them copied. Of course, I never turned anything in, so the teacher didn't know.

 

[Zarn]

I haven't cheated in the past, and I don't cheat now. I won't cheat in the future.

I did my projects mostly by myself. My parents may have given a few pointers on some, but that was it. The labor (as well as most of the thinking) was mine to do. Of course, they weren't as good as the other ones (that stressed me out). Now that I think of it, the projects of my former classmates seemed way over the top for them.