What do you do when your student cheats?

[madteaparty]

I was discussing with a friend and we can't decide if this is a homeschooling or parenting question.

If your student, say, knowingly plagiarizes, or gets hold of answer book and writes down the answer, and is invariably caught, and does this more than once, how would you handle in your homeschool? I know there's consequences in school, obviously.

[Kristie in Florida]

I'm interested to see what others say because we haven't gone through this (yet?).

 

I will probably handle it like we handled lying a few years back. I think lying and cheating are similar.

[madteaparty]

How did you handle lying? I agree.

[Arcadia]

For plagiarizing, I would remind my kids to reference the source and give credit accordingly. My kids have written things in quotes and forgot to list the sources during their first draft.

 

For looking at the answer book, I did that as a kid because it was extremely boring busywork. My mom convinced my dad to drop boring afterschool busywork that he gave me. My kids have joked about peeping at the aops solution books while I grade their work. I try to be open with them. I tell my kids that it is okay to say they don't wish to do or that they want to do that portion another day. That it is okay to say they don't know because I don't expect 100% everyday because my kids had bad nights and sick days. I basically try to minimise the need to peep at answer keys.

 

My kids have lied with the "I am telling a lie" face as a joke like saying they have a zero for their tests; very blatant/obvious lies. I think DS10 has lied because he wasn't sure but I can't be sure because he has always been forgetful. For example DS10 may have forgotten if he had practiced his cello today and may answer yes instead of IDK. Then he run to DS11 to double check and tells me DS11 says no. So far they have not lie intentionally other than the blatant lies.

[Kristie in Florida]

It was years ago, and we haven't had to do it since. We discussed how she was hurting the people that she was lying about and to. I also gave her a list of every single Bible verse where lying was mentioned and she had to look it up, underline the passage, think about how it related to this particular situation and what God thought about lying, and pray about it. She had no privileges like tv until she was done. It took her a few days I think, maybe more. She uses a different Bible now but for a long time after she would come across those verses again in her normal reading and remember. It worked for us.

[EndOfOrdinary]

My son has open access to the answers at any time, even for tests. We have discussed in multiple ways that I do not care about the answer, but about how or why he came to his conclusions. This essentially eliminates the thrill. If the actual answer is meaningless, there is no desire to cheat.

 

The same is true for essays. All the outlines, draft work, research is what is graded. It is how he has come to the conclussions and his process. All his test short answers he can use the book for if he needs to, but the information is going to be referenced later. If he doesn't learn it now, it is going to be a problem that does not go away. He has to source site for referenced information with a page number and I am fine with it.

 

He is thoroughly aware that outsourced AP classes, college DE classes, and SAT tests are what give him legitimacy - definitely not Mommy Grades. My grades are to help him learn enough to do well for others.

[basketcase]

I teach high school students at a co-op, and I discuss a few things with them about plagiarism:

 

1- It's easy to plagiarize by accident. That's why we learn how to give attribution.

 

2- If you plagiarize in college, you fail. If you steal someone's work as an employee, you get fired.

 

3- You're old enough to understand that your education is for you. When you cheat, you cheat yourself.

 

I also talk about integrity and how my husband's business thrives because of it.

[Reefgazer]

Parenting consequences, obviously.  But I would make it so painfully troublesome for the student that it would be easier to work hard at learning the material, rather than cheat.  For example, said child would have to repeat the entire cheated-on unit on consecutive Saturdays until on their own time, and re-take the test.

I was discussing with a friend and we can't decide if this is a homeschooling or parenting question.
If your student, say, knowingly plagiarizes, or gets hold of answer book and writes down the answer, and is invariably caught, and does this more than once, how would you handle in your homeschool? I know there's consequences in school, obviously.

 

[Clear Creek]

I have one who has to take tests in the same room as me. That is the only way I can be sure there is no cheating.

 

Also, don't use LOF. Just don't. The answers are right there and the temptation is too great.