Easy to Cheat!

Joyce and I both play the Mini Crossword Puzzle in the New York Times every day (online). We compare the time that it took each of us to complete it. Some mild, uh, ... competition ... has ensued.

That's one problem. The other? It's way too easy to cheat. Don't know who stars in that TV show the puzzle asked about? Google can tell you in a heartbeat.

We both (usually) confess our cheating. I tried for about a week not to cheat, but that left me with a couple of incomplete puzzles--whereas Joyce's were ... finished. Can not have that!

So ... we both occasionally cheat. We don't feel too good about it, but, you know, it's better than losing a crossword game to your spouse of fifty years, right?

And, of course, cheating in school is surpassingly easier than it used to be. I confess that I sometimes took a peek at the quiz of a classmate near me--just to, you know, confirm that my answer was right. But our teachers were very alert and considered cheating a capital offense. Heads of offenders were piled outside the school.

And for out-of-class assignments? Have to read The Scarlet Letter in English class?

In my long-ago school days this presented me with three choices: (1) read it, (2) don't read it, (3) go to the local library and take a look at a series of reference books called Masterplots.  These books thoroughly summarized famous literary works.

I can truthfully say I always pursued choices (1) and (2); I never looked at Masterplots. (My abysmal scores on our 9th grade reading quizzes on Great Expectations can certify that!).

I checked recently--and Masterplots is still in business. (Link to info from the publisher.)

But nowadays who needs to go check a book, you know? I mean, what is Google for if not to help you hack your way through The Scarlet Letter?

But the online summaries are so thorough now that you don't even need to read the book at all, do you?

And, of course, there are all those suppliers (online) of essays you can purchase for a few dollars + your everlasting soul. And there are places that will edit/proofread your essays. And ... you know.

So teachers--well, teachers who care--have had to become more and more vigilant and inventive in their assignments and quizzes and class discussions and paper-grading.

The last decade of my teaching career was at Western Reserve Academy, and the curriculum required me to teach Hamlet every year to my juniors (not that I minded: as you know, I love the Bard). I knew perfectly well that if I just assigned my classes to read, say, Act I for tomorrow's class, Google would probably crash.

So, instead, I decided to have the kids read the entire play aloud, in class, changing parts throughout. (I often took the best parts!) That way, we could stop and talk about passages that were entirely confusing; that way, we could understand more clearly some things that characters said--even if we didn't always understand the words. (It's amazing how much more intelligible the Bard becomes when you hear or speak the words. He meant the plays to be seen and heard, of course,--not to be read silently in a dorm room.)

So, yes, this stopped some of the "cheating" that surely would have otherwise gone on--but by far more important? I believe it helped the students see/understand the play a lot better. There's a lot in Hamlet that young people today can relate to: relationships with parents, with a lover, with betrayal, with dishonesty, with anger, with depression, etc.

Anyway, I'll probably continue cheating on the Mini Crossword. Can't let Joyce beat me every damn day!