| October 2004
Cheating
Cheating often begins in middle school. Being
social becomes very important and homework often takes a back
seat to other things. Unfortunately, students lose perspective
on why they are in school. Every time the brain is not exposed
to information, it does not wrinkle. Wrinkling is the key to memory.
The brain wrinkles when it is exposed to new
material and experiences. As students repeat an action, the brain
wrinkle goes deeper. The deeper the wrinkle, the more likely a
student is to remember the knowledge. That is why students are
asked to repeat the same material several times. A teacher talks
about adverbs--that’s 1. Students watch as teacher demonstrates
an adverb--that’s 2. Teacher gives an assignment on adverbs--that’s
3. Students review adverbs the following day--that’s 4.
Students are given a worksheet on adverbs--that’s 5.
Most brains need to hear, see and/or experience
something new 3-4 times before they will remember the data under
pressure. That is why teachers assign students to read a chapter,
discuss, take notes, outline the chapter, watch a video, bring
in a speaker and then give students a worksheet. Repetition is
the key to memory of facts. Teachers vary the packages the information
comes in to keep the interest of the students. To make it even
more interesting, students learn in various modalities.
Some are auditory and learn by listening. Others
are visual and learn by reading. Many learn by doing and benefit
from taking notes and making note cards. Students tend to drift
off when information is coming to them in their weaker learning
area but part of becoming a good student is learning to compensate
for this by developing inner discipline. After all, when information
comes to them in their strength area, it is someone else’s
weak area.
Therefore, the student who is daydreaming while
the teacher is initially explaining adverbs and continues to daydream
while the teacher is demonstrating on the overhead has just missed
the initial wrinkling process. While doing the homework, they
will have little recollection of the topic and become frustrated.
The following day, this student may be tempted to copy someone’s
paper and turn it in. The test is the following day and while
most of the students have deep wrinkles from processing the information
4-5 times, this student is on level 1 or 2. Under stress, the
brain tends to downshift a level or two. This student is again
tempted to cheat.
Skills build in school like stacking blocks.
What was learned yesterday is the basis of what will be learned
today and tomorrow. Students that are tempted to cheat are depriving
themselves of the knowledge needed to build a foundation for the
future.
How can parents help?
Have a discussion with your child on how important
homework really is. Don’t make excuses that discourage the
student like “I was never good in that either” or
“That is a boring subject.”
Encourage students to listen and develop good
study skills. Don’t place higher expectations on a child
than they can achieve. If a child has been a ‘B’ student
for 5 years and if teachers feel they are working up to their
ability, chances are good this is a ‘B’ student. Too
much pressure may back students into a corner where cheating is
their only option.
Be realistic. If a teacher says a student was
cheating, they were probably cheating. Talk to the child about
honesty and how cheating is hurting them.
Help your child as they need help and then back
away. Giving too many answers without allowing the child to struggle,
creates weakness and dependency. A child is likely to feel they
are incapable because they need so much assistance. “Gee,
I must not be smart.”
Cheating is lying and damages character. Cheating
once makes it easier to cheat a second time and a third. Everyone
wants children with character and not deception.
Mrs. Pytel
K-8 Counselor
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