System 13

I write this entry with some uneasiness, but I want the feedback, and perhaps it might help guide someone else to do the “right” thing.

A few weeks ago, I went in to one of my history classes a bit early. One of my classmates was already there, a high school girl who’s in one of those programs that lets her attend college classes and get credit both for high school and for college. (Nifty programs, those).

Anyway. We were talking about random things in the class, things we liked, things we weren’t so crazy about it. We landed on the topic of the written responses, which there are quite a few throughout the course. They’re not long responses – a page, single spaced – but they have to show that you understand the events and concepts being discussed. I don’t recall how the conversation ended up heading this way, but she ended up telling me that she was actually writing two responses for each one that was due. Why? Because she was doing her response, along with someone else’s. Namely, the work for a fellow who comes into class barely awake (when he comes at all), sleeps through class (if he’s there), doesn’t take notes, and is generally a poor student. I believe he’s also a senior in high school, doing the post-secondary thing.

While I can’t be sure, I’d say the look I gave her at this point in the conversation sent the message of, “Um, what the hell is wrong with you?,” because she immediately started defending her actions. “Oh, well, he’s a nice guy – a really nice guy, yeah. He just has trouble taking notes, so I said I’d do his written responses for him. Not a big deal, it doesn’t take me that long, I don’t mind, really.” Hmm. Trouble taking notes, indeed! Perhaps he’d have better luck with that if he were, you know, awake during class. It might also help if he’d spend time listening to the lecture being given rather than cracking jokes and trying to portray himself as the Mr. Cool.

So, what did I do? Nothing. I didn’t like it – it was flat out cheating – but at the time, I didn’t want to say anything about it. I had no real reason to feel this way – I didn’t know either of these people, and had nothing to gain by “reporting” their actions – but, that’s how I felt, regardless.

Fast forward a few weeks, specifically, to today. The results for our last multiple choice quiz came in, and they weren’t very pretty. Out of a class of 25+- people, there were 15 Fs. The professor was not very pleased with the results, to say the least. He added, however, that there was still an extra credit option, so if you were one of the folks struggling, you still had the opportunity to bring your grade up a bit. At this point, the lazy guy says, “Haha, yeah, that’s my saving grace, man, that’ll keep me from failing. That’s what I always do, get the extra credit stuff to make sure I don’t fail.” Now, let me elaborate on something. The extra credit option is a written response. Now, if this guy turns in the extra credit to make sure he doesn’t fail the class, who do you think will be writing it? Yeah… not him. It was at this point that I decided that, as the farmer who lost control of the manure wagon said, the “shit had gone far enough.”

I didn’t jump up and shout names or point fingers. I waited until the class was over, and then told the professor that I needed to speak to him for a moment in private. I basically told him what I’ve outlined above – that the guy wasn’t doing any of the out-of-class work, and that it was instead being written by another student. That, despite it not really affecting me, I thought that it was wrong, and that it needed to be brought to his attention. He said thanks for my letting him know, and said he’d compare their papers to see if he could spot any signs that would back up what I’d told him.

So, here’s where you folks come in, in regards to the feedback: did I do what was right? I keep going over it in my head, and I think I did what was right. It’s not right to cheat, and what those two are doing could be seen as academic dishonesty (which is how I see it). They’re taking advantage of the professor, and, one could say, of the other students, who are working their asses off for the grade. For me, it made it even worse because they acted like it wasn’t a big deal at all. They acted as if there wasn’t anything morally questionable about her doing his work for him.

Having said all of that, however, I still feel like crap. I feel like a little kid who has just ran to the teacher and said, “Um, Mr. Smith, um, um, Sally spit on Jimmy and I saw it, and, and, and…” Despite knowing that what they’re doing is wrong and should be righted, despite knowing that it’s not fair to the other students, to the professor, and (perhaps most importantly) to the guy in question, I still feel like I should have kept my mouth shut.

So… what would you have done? What I did? Nothing? Something else?