If a student asked you to help xem cheat...

[AspieAlly613]

I work as an online math/science tutor.  I've seen a number of explicit cheating requests, and others where the request wasn't explicit, but was rather obvious.

 

I don't knowingly help students cheat, and am willing to notify parents/instructors about these infractions.  I don't do blackmail, my silence cannot be bought.

 

What do you think you'd be comfortable with?

 

[LeChat]

Hmm...I think, perhaps, teachers/former teachers might be able to help answer this question.

 

@GingerRose @SithLord @coolshades @Mezzo Forte @Red Sun Rises @Brookenly @Serran

@weird elf

[Guest]

It depends on the context.

 

If you work for a company, then you're probably risking your employment if you get caught. I answered under the assumption that you are not working under a company or that your company is only a matching service that doesn't intervene.

 

 

The way I see it, cheating is an issue between the person who is supposed to be doing the work and the person assigning it. If somebody brought me a couple pages of math questions and a 20$ bill to complete it, I'd hand the page back completed with no questions asked. I'm being paid to do what my customer asks, namely provide goods or services. What they do with these goods or services after the sale is both beyond my control and not my problem. 

 

Now I also said "blackmail", because I see it as prudent to keep records of grey area activities for the purposes of covering my own ass. I'd simply ask them to submit a request in writing for me to do XYZ or provide a receipt with the goods/services in exchange for a signature.

 

 

Edit; I personally wouldn't help someone cheat, because it undermines the academic integrity of my position. I work in a school, so this would be a conflict of interest with my employer. If I ceased to work in a school, then I'd consider such a request.

[Guest]

Blackmail sounds good. Pay up or you're ruined!

[Missing]

I used to work as a tutor back in college, and I remember there was one student who tried to get me to help them cheat. I politely refused but didn't turn them in to anyone.

[Ceebs]

Possibly, if I liked them and was sympathetic to their plight.

 

Before anyone says 'But that's not fair!' or 'That's not ethical!'...

 

...I know.

 

I never make claims of always being fair or ethical. I just do what I feel like. If what I feel like happens to align with 'fair and ethical', and being fair and ethical is important to me in that situation, then what I do is fair and ethical. If it doesn't, it isn't. Might as well be truthful about that.

[Rat Lady]

I guess I don't understand the issue. Is the cheating like, they are taking an online test and asking you to give them the answer to a question as they are mid-test?

[weird elf]

It would very strongly depend on context and what is or isn't considered "cheating". I have no one-size-fits-all answer to this.

[Skycaptain]

Terminate - not worth risking your job for 

[Janus the Fox]

If i taught my computing and a student asked for help to cheat?  A flat no for me... I think I'd encourage different ways of learning, extra help.  A student asking that could be legitimately struggling to learn.  I otherwise would not do anything of the listed census options.

[verily-forsooth-egads]

Where's "none of the above"? I wouldn't help, but probably wouldn't bother reporting unless it seemed particularly serious. Idealistically, maybe try and talk them out of it, or help them to the point where they don't need to cheat—failing that, kids will be kids.

[Gray Watcher]

3 hours ago, Mackenzie Holiday said:

I used to work as a tutor back in college, and I remember there was one student who tried to get me to help them cheat. I politely refused but didn't turn them in to anyone.

Strangely enough this was not an option in question.  That would most likely be what I would do, unless it was obvious that they do this regularly.

[daveb]

I don't condone cheating and certainly wouldn't aid or abet it. Whether I would report it if someone asked me to help them cheat might depend on circumstances, but I am not a tutor or teacher.

[AspieAlly613]

Added the "None of the above" option, albeit a bit too late.

[SithLord]

I don't let my kids cheat, and if I were tutoring a student I wouldn't let them cheat either. There are times when copying is a legitimate way to help a kid without them realizing it (such as if they need to practice spelling or proper sentence structure at a basic level) but there's a point when it's overdone. I wouldn't do stuff like reporting the student unless it was becoming a huge problem, however (in the context of tutoring/helping. If they turn in a plagiarized or stolen assignment, they deserve the 0 and/or email to the admin about it).

 

I have in the past pointed out when my kids are cheating too obviously, and teased them for being too open about it. Smarter students have picked up on me pointing out their method was flawed rather than lambasting them for cheating in the first place. 

[SithLord]

Something interesting to point out, a "cheat sheet" or note card or whatever you were allowed to use in school when taking a test is a legitimate study hack. Some teachers allow you to use an index card with answers on it during a test because you had to study the material again to figure out what material would be on the card. It seems like cheating, but it's some teachers' preferred way to trick their students into studying. 

[coolshades]

I'd refuse to work with them again and notify their instructor.  The reason I'd notify the instructor is because they need to be aware that this student is attempting to cheat, because if I don't help them, they'll find someone else who will.  So the instructor needs a heads up to keep an eye on the student.  I know I'd appreciate knowing about something like that if I were the child's teacher.

[GingerRose]

Not of the above. I would speak to the student and offer them alternative methods to passing the exam. I find no reason to involve another adult. If students are looking up to you as a tutor enough to ask you this uestion, then that means they tust you. I don't think I would need to break that trust unless it was the case of mandatoy epoting (suspected danger). Sue, the student may ignoe all my advice and cheat. That might just be a had lesson they'll have to lean themselves in the long un. 

[AspieAlly613]

2 minutes ago, GingerRose said:

If students are looking up to you as a tutor enough to ask you this uestion, then that means they tust you.

Sometimes they don't trust me.  Sometimes they're trying to pass it off as a homework assignment.

[sirenian]

As a few others have suggested, context is hugely important.

Is the student eight years old or eighteen? 

What is the student's understanding of how the educational system works, what the expectations are for each student's performance, and so on?

What is the scope of cheating the student is trying to engage in?

What is the reason the student has for cheating?  

 

 

An 18-year-old who is brazenly trying to cheat, fully owning up to what is going on, because of simply not wanting to do the assignment (in order to be able to do something else) or who is trying to engage in a large cheating scheme involving many other students? That is a student whom I would choose not to work with ever again.  If I was working for an agency, I would explain the reason I had for dropping the student (and leave it to the agency to follow their protocol about whom they would inform at that point, because I assume they would have a policy). If I was working freelance, my next steps would depend on my relationship, if any, to the school or university, but I might report it if I believed that it was something that was likely to happen with me or without me, not in order to be punitive to this particular student, but rather to help the institution to prevent a cheating scandal.

 

But an 8-year-old cheating in almost any way for almost any reason? That is a student who I would work with to understand the student's thought process, try to understand the student's decision making, and where possible counsel the student toward different behavior--and notify parents and/or teachers depending on the outcome of that conversation.  Does the student understand why cheating-type behaviors are typically not allowed in school?   Does the student know what other options are available?  Does the student understand what the consequences might be?  Often younger children need opportunities to discuss their behavior in order to learn about how it makes others feel, because they are still at a developmental stage where they are not always able to infer what effects their actions will have on others, and they may try out behaviors as a way to learn about them.  Meeting such a situation entirely punitively means that the child misses an opportunity for learning and personal growth.  Of course, a child who does cheat should face consequences.  Whether the child actually cheats or whether the child is merely considering and asking about cheating, though, either way, the child should be given an opportunity to reflect on their choices  in a meaningful way.

 

Here's a third case. What about an 18-year-old who has tried really hard on an assignment but has not been able to learn the material for whatever reason and  is now terrified of failing a class because of some looming consequence--a student who might not be able to play on a much loved sports team or who is afraid of not getting into college... or is afraid being beaten by a parent?  I still wouldn't help this student to cheat, but this is a human who needs compassion and a grown-up to trust. They need to know that someone cares about them and an opportunity to figure out what strategies are available.  So in this case, I would absolutely not terminate the student, but rather I would work to learn what resources might be available for the student and, to the best of my ability, help the student to find avenues other than cheating .  But, look, even in this one scenario, I gave three very different sub-scenarios, and what it would mean to be compassionate toward each of those three students looks somewhat different.

 

 

I no longer work as a tutor, but I did for many years, and doing it well (and wisely) is, um, friggin' hard!  Students come from all kinds of different backgrounds and have lots of different needs and different goals, and you get such a narrow window of interaction with them.  It's one thing to just help a kid learn multiplication tables, or whatever, and at the end of the day, most of the time that is all tutors are getting paid to do...  (and generally not getting paid very much, at that), so calling on ourselves to rise above, to meet the student full on as a whole person can be more than it is reasonable or realistic to ask of ourselves...  and yet, in the name of "it takes a village to raise a child,"  when we see a student who is really struggling--whether ethically or academically--we have the power to really help that student in meaningful ways.  The  proverbial "rewarding feeling" that comes from doing that doesn't make up for the under-paid and over-worked nature of the job, but I did try to always react to my students' needs from a place of compassion to the extent that I had it to offer.  And compassion requires that we not take a one-size-fits-all approach.

 

 

 

[AspieAlly613]

Right, that's why I said "Choose all that could apply".

[Guest]

The more I think about it...

 

It solely depends on whether I work for the institution they attend or the individual themselves.

 

 If I work for the school, I'm telling the person not to cheat and holding onto the fact that they asked me to in case they do appear to have tried to cheat later. If they never follow through then it's a non-issue.

 

If I work for the student directly, then I'm doing whatever they paid me to do. It's not that i support their activities, but rather that I'm simply doing what my "employer" tells me to do. Unless cheating for them violates some state, national, or local law... I'm just going to do it 

 

[sirenian]

@Diabolical Diatribe And what if your employer is neither the school nor the student?
What if your employer is, for example, a tutoring agency, or a library that provides tutoring to its patrons, or an adult literacy foundation, or the parent of the student, or a university fraternity that pays for tutoring of its members?

 

 

[LeChat]

I'm not a teacher or tutor and only had a little experience in trying to help a friend in high school who had a learning disability and was asking for help with their math homework.

 

I thought tutors weren't, exactly, supposed to solve the entire equation for the student, but were supposed to ask the student what they're having trouble understanding about the homework and ask them to try to solve it in front of the tutor (so that the tutor can see if they're solving something, incorrectly, to explain to them what they're having trouble with).

 

Sometimes, my math teachers would try to make up their own math problem, on the spot, in order to help teach the class (also, probably, because there weren't a lot of examples from the book that they could solve and show the students, not without having to start solving the math problems that the students were supposed to solve, themselves, for homework).

 

Sometimes, the math problems they made up would, suddenly, have a decimal or fraction (which it wasn't supposed to have, for the math we were doing), so then, they'd adjust and change the original number(s) they started with and re-start showing and explaining how to solve the math problem.

 

So, with this method, there's no need to solve the student's exact math homework problem, since it's about showing them how to solve it with different numbers, then, allowing them to try to solve their homework problems on their own.

[DarkStormyKnight]

I would simply say no? Why is that not an option?

[The French Unicorn]

I said none of the above because I would probably discuss with the students about why they want to cheat and try to make them change their mind. However, if I think there is a risk the students will cheat anyway, I'll tall to the parents and and let them handle the problem (except maybe if the students told me that parental pressure was the reason for cheating; there eventually I'd try to talk with all of them). I think id the student want to cheat, there is probably a reason and that determines what it is can help.

 

I don't think I would report because intent to cheat is not cheating : maybe the student won't cheat in the end, and I think that alerting when nothing was done yet can do more harm than good. However, I may check to see if there were cheating in the end and then alert it there were.

[a little annihilation]

I picked notify xyr instructors and parents

[AspieAlly613]

4 hours ago, DarkStormyKnight said:

I would simply say no? Why is that not an option?

I presumed everyone would be comfortable saying no under the right conditions.  (For example, if the agency had a "no cheating" policy.)

[The Sword]

NOTA - refuse to help, but take no further action and offer to continue tutoring them "properly".

[Guest]

8 hours ago, sirenian said:

@Diabolical Diatribe And what if your employer is neither the school nor the student?
What if your employer is, for example, a tutoring agency, or a library that provides tutoring to its patrons, or an adult literacy foundation, or the parent of the student, or a university fraternity that pays for tutoring of its members?

 

 

Then I follow company policy, same as of it was a school. If it's the family of the student or the student themselves, then I follow the directive of the people paying me. If a kid asks me to cheat but their parents who pay aren't okay with that, then that's a "no". If the parents ask and the kid agrees, then obviously that's different.