Being a “somewhat” nerdy kid growing up, I was not infrequently subject to coercive attempts from other kids to help them cheat. I remember one time in French class in middle school, this kid named Yousef tried to bribe me with sour apple flavored candy of some sort. I don’t really remember the outcome, whether I helped him or not. But I do remember eating the candy.
Mostly I was pretty strict about not helping other kids cheat. In retrospect, it was because I was a bit of a prick. If I was a bit smarter socially, I could have really parlayed that into a kind of grudging utilitarian popularity for myself. Plus I probably could have made some money writing term papers for other people. Oh well, if I knew then what I know now…
In any event, I just came across this article on MSN, “Is Your Child a Cheater?” I’ve always been a sucker for the awful articles they have on MSN and this was no exception.
Basically, the gist of this article is that thanks to the internet and computers, kids today have many more tools and techniques available to help them cheat. And it is the responsibility of parents and teachers to pre-emptively stop them from cheating by teaching them about trust and ethics, and other stuff.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s total bunk. People are largely overlooking what the internet has done to knowledge and education. Take that weinery dude on Jeopardy, who just keeps winning and winning and winning. Years ago, I would have been “impressed” by this guys mastery of trivia. Now, it’s just a great big yawn to me. Because if you gave me a computer with quick internet access, I might just be able to give that asshole a run for his money. (Actually, that’s a good idea for a game show, people have to locate information using Google within the shortest timeframe…)
Anyway, the essential point of that example is this: before we had widespread computers and knowledge databases, it was very important for people to be able to think in a way that basically mimicked how a database worked. Most of our standardized education operates around simple memorized information recall metaphors. So it only makes sense for kids today to be turning to computers to help them solve these problems. Because computers make better computers than we do. And they always will.
We shouldn’t be running around trying to punish kids for realizing that our education system and methods are increasingly outdated. We should be rewarding them for pioneering new models, wherein they are able to retrieve and synthesize information, and often work in a collaborative fashion to achieve goals. These kids are pointing us towards new models of how intelligence works, and how information is related to in our lives. Just trying to hammer them into submission with “ethical systems” and calling them “cheaters” is not going to help at all.
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