Thursday, January 29, 2009

Cheating Web Site for Kids

I got a call from my older son's French teacher today. It seems a boy passed R. a note and it turned out to be a printout from a website all about cheating. R.'s not in trouble but she wanted to let me know and she also informed the vice-principal and the guidance counselor.
The site is http://www.rajuabju.com/literature/how_to_cheat.htm
and it reads exactly like what you might expect from a smart-ass high school student. (Hey, maybe the guy is 30. He claims to have graduated from college). The writer takes apart an article at PBS.org pbskids.org/itsmylife/school/cheating/
meant to persuade students not to cheat. The site has a lot of good material about cheating and seems pretty straightforward and worth checking out for kids. It explains why all the excuses about cheating are lame. To the excuse that, "All my classes are hard," for example, the PBS site explains that it's a lame excuse because "School isn't supposed to be easy."
The self-proclaimed cheating expert offers this reply to the argument that every school has a cheating policy and you could get a terrible grade or get expelled from school, the writer replies, "Only if you get caught! Don't get caught and you won't get in trouble." His advice is full of expletives and I guess I can see why it made my kid giggle. (But not in French kid, come on!)
Most of it is your basic techniques which surprisingly are no more high tech than they were when I was in high school back in the dark ages, except he advises that students use computer print-outs for cheat sheets with a 6 point font.
Sigh. I know this isn't the worst thing a kid ever did but it does make you see what's out there on the web and it does wave a red flag that we're never really sure what they're up to. Darn that computer! I'm taking this as a warning not to be so clueless myself.
So now we have to have a hear to heart with son number 1 about cheating and with son number two (whose teacher also called today. When it rains it pours) about his rowdy behavior in class. I feel like we should get detention for being bad parents but this too will pass.

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