So I thought I should talk about a topic that Sutherland had brought up on his blog. You can read the article that Mr. Sutherland wrote here. My response? Well I have to agree 100%, cheating is almost everywhere in Alameda High; for every assignment handed out, someone is cheating on it and copying the work of someone else. I'm not exactly sure how to feel about it though, I have to be honest and say that I've cheated more than a few times on assignments. In my head, I cheat because I know the material, I just don't feel like (or don't have enough time) to do the work. Why fill in some blanks in math that have to do with something simple like addition when I can spend my time doing something more worth my while like practicing for a different class or drawing? I'm not copying because I can't do the work, that wouldn't be very smart, I'm copying because I have more important things to do.
A lot of teachers bash cheating as a way for kids to get through school without learning anything. Well... technically by cheating we ARE reading the material, so it's not like we're not learning a single thing by it. Either way though, teachers assume that we have way more time than we actually do. I've spent entire nights finishing all my homework and studying for tests; it's not their fault, though, how should they know how much homework other classes are giving? It's not our fault either, how should WE know that all of our teachers are going to assign us something huge on the same day? You see I've found out something recently, when teachers assign a lot of things, we panic. We see the list of homework in our agenda and we thing I can't possibly finish all of this in one night!' so we just... don't do it. We finish the assignments that we can and then get some much needed rest. Then comes the next day, when everything is due, and this is where we really start to panic; I can't copy it during class. What if a teacher catches me? What if they tell the teacher that assigned it? I have to focus on the class that I'm in at that time... the first solution that wanders into our minds is to cheat. Why not? It's easy and fast and once we're done we'll have nothing to worry about. It's not like the teacher is going to compare all the answers, they don't have enough time for that.
There are some instances in which someone might have a good excuse too, like if they forgot the assignment at home. They know how to do it but don't want to have to do it all over again (unless they actually REMEMBER all of the answers that they wrote) so they get a neighbors worksheet and copy away. Maybe they forgot the assignment altogether? Then we cheat because the time and panic pressure kicks in. When I cheat, I usually cheat because I forgot that we had the assignment and don't have time to do it all because I'm doing something in class and I have the class before lunch. I'm going to contradict my earlier statement and say that once or twice I have copied something because I didn't get it, but it helped to copy! When I was copying I had the chance to ask my friends how they got certain answers and how they worded things rather than look it up from a text book. I suppose I could call them but I find things are a lot more difficult over the phone because they can tell me how to do it but they can't really show me how to do it.
So all in all I think that cheating is unavoidable but sometimes it could be a better solution than not doing the assignment at all right? Like I said earlier, while copying technically we're reading the material; if we just didn't do the assignment at all then we wouldn't even get that.
P.S. I hate when teachers tell you to ask your parents. Yeah my parents don't know High School math anymore, they don't speak french, they don't study history, I don't need help in english or art, and I HIGHLY DOUBT they can help me in judo (not that I can really cheat in that class) don't we only remember like 10% of the things we learn in school or something?
P.S.S. I found a few related articles worth reading about homework given to students, give them a read!
Physorg.com here
USATODAY.com here
Read More!
A lot of teachers bash cheating as a way for kids to get through school without learning anything. Well... technically by cheating we ARE reading the material, so it's not like we're not learning a single thing by it. Either way though, teachers assume that we have way more time than we actually do. I've spent entire nights finishing all my homework and studying for tests; it's not their fault, though, how should they know how much homework other classes are giving? It's not our fault either, how should WE know that all of our teachers are going to assign us something huge on the same day? You see I've found out something recently, when teachers assign a lot of things, we panic. We see the list of homework in our agenda and we thing I can't possibly finish all of this in one night!' so we just... don't do it. We finish the assignments that we can and then get some much needed rest. Then comes the next day, when everything is due, and this is where we really start to panic; I can't copy it during class. What if a teacher catches me? What if they tell the teacher that assigned it? I have to focus on the class that I'm in at that time... the first solution that wanders into our minds is to cheat. Why not? It's easy and fast and once we're done we'll have nothing to worry about. It's not like the teacher is going to compare all the answers, they don't have enough time for that.
There are some instances in which someone might have a good excuse too, like if they forgot the assignment at home. They know how to do it but don't want to have to do it all over again (unless they actually REMEMBER all of the answers that they wrote) so they get a neighbors worksheet and copy away. Maybe they forgot the assignment altogether? Then we cheat because the time and panic pressure kicks in. When I cheat, I usually cheat because I forgot that we had the assignment and don't have time to do it all because I'm doing something in class and I have the class before lunch. I'm going to contradict my earlier statement and say that once or twice I have copied something because I didn't get it, but it helped to copy! When I was copying I had the chance to ask my friends how they got certain answers and how they worded things rather than look it up from a text book. I suppose I could call them but I find things are a lot more difficult over the phone because they can tell me how to do it but they can't really show me how to do it.
So all in all I think that cheating is unavoidable but sometimes it could be a better solution than not doing the assignment at all right? Like I said earlier, while copying technically we're reading the material; if we just didn't do the assignment at all then we wouldn't even get that.
P.S. I hate when teachers tell you to ask your parents. Yeah my parents don't know High School math anymore, they don't speak french, they don't study history, I don't need help in english or art, and I HIGHLY DOUBT they can help me in judo (not that I can really cheat in that class) don't we only remember like 10% of the things we learn in school or something?
P.S.S. I found a few related articles worth reading about homework given to students, give them a read!
Physorg.com here
USATODAY.com here