Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I taught middle school for decades. My policy, if I saw a student "assisting" another student was that I immediately collected both exams, made them sit quietly twiddling their thumbs for the rest of the period, called parents, explained why it was an issue with the one sharing, if needed, and offered a choice of a zero or to stay after the school in order to retake the exam. Oh, and be subjected to a lecture on the perils of cheating or allowing others to cheat off you before I would hand them the new exam. I did not fail them or academically punish them for a first time incident, but many ended up crying and were very embarrassed, so I figured that was good enough to make my point. I can only think of a couple of times when I had a repeat offender on the cheater's part and never on the helper's part. However, it is probably more common for teachers at the middle school level or above to hand out zeros.
Don't go in with guns blazing, it is possible your daughter was at least to some degree allowing the other child to see her answers. My experience has been that the children who allowed others to cheat off them were generally bright, well behaved kids who would never cheat themselves. Peer pressure is a very real problem for middle school kids, often making parents scratch their heads and comment about how their child knows better, and it was true they knew better, but they were more concerned about social consequences than teacher or parental consequences, this is just one area where it shows it's ugly head. The point, from the teacher's standpoint, is to now make them more concerned about teacher and parent consequences than what their peers think.
Ahhh....the voice of experience. Pretty much nails it.
I would also put some of this on the teacher. Knowing that the desks are apparently so close together that a student can read what is on another student's paper, it is smart to scramble the tests so not every student has the questions in the same order. Old experienced teacher trick which ferrets out the guilty party quite quickly...and the astonishment on the cheaters face is just remarkable. But...but.....but...she got an "A", and I copied her paper, and I failed. Sorry about that that!
This was a common teacher tactic when I was in school -- punish the person being cheated off along with the cheater. Didn't matter if you were totally innocent, it was "punish them all and let God sort them out" philosophy combined with "they probably did something they should be punished for anyway so it evens out."
Lord, I hated school.
I can see this as a thing.
In high school, another student accused some of us of cheating in our French test, but since we all got D's, the teacher really wasn't convinced.
If it is more litigious now, it might be good to ask why. As someone who was falsely accused and punished for "letting X cheat off my paper" while kids I knew cheated everyday got away with it, I have very little trust in the ability of teachers to detect cheating.
A favorite tactic of Miss I (2nd grade) was if a boy scored higher than the girls in the class was to punish the boys because "they must have cheated."
There is a reason why so many parents today believe their kids over the teacher and that is because we experienced it ourselves as kids and vowed not to let it happen to ours.
Our entire society is more litigious in every aspect, but apparently when it comes to parents suing over anything and everything, teachers are to blame. Gotcha
Very sorry to hear that this happened to your daughter. I've posted in the past (here and on other forums) that I was very frequently falsely accused of things when I was in school. The worst parts of being falsely accused are that you are completely powerless, nobody ever believes that you are innocent, and claiming innocence was often interpreted as insubordination. I am glad that you are sticking up for your daughter. Unfortunately, my parents always sided with the teacher and never helped me, even though I was frequently put in positions that somebody my then age was not equipped to handle.
I agree with the posters who suggest to start with the teacher, before escalating it to the principal. Unfortunately, principals almost always side with teachers.
About people who say that the stakes are low in 6th grade: that might depend on the district. When I was in middle school, 6th grade determined who was in honors classes the following year, which would de facto determine who was in honors and AP classes in high school. So the stakes were extremely high in 6th grade. On the other hand, middle school detention had no long term effect.
I agree with the posters who say to try to switch teachers if at all possible. Unfortunately, when a student (whether fairly or not) makes a bad impression on a teacher early on, there is absolutely nothing that the student can do to change the teacher's impression. Hopefully the 0 won't carry over to whatever teacher she transfers into.
If your district was like mine (grades in 6th grade were high stakes, detention was not high stakes), maybe you can make an agreement that your daughter will serve the detention, but if she has no further incidents for the rest of the semester, that the 0 will be expunged from her record. Perhaps later on, when no longer in the heat of the moment, the teacher will view things in a more rational matter. Perhaps in accepting the detention, you can make an attempt at speaking the teacher's language (even though you don't agree), by saying something like "You understand and accept that life isn't fair". Sometimes speaking somebody else's language is the best way to reason with them.
What I think is going on here is that many teachers dislike high achieving students who are ahead of the curriculum. That was a problem for myself when I was in a school, and I see it being a problem for your daughter. Since your daughter is a grade ahead of the other students and is noticeably smaller and younger than the other students, that makes things even tougher for her. I know that many posters will say that what I am posting is not true. But unless you were a high achieving student who experienced this, such as myself or your daughter, it is difficult to relate to. And, I'm not saying that all teachers are unfair to high achieving students, just some of them. So a teacher who posts that he/she is fair to high achieving students does nothing to help myself or your daughter, and does nothing to negate the experiences that I had and your daughter is having.
I really hope things work out for you. If you want, search my past posting history to read about some of my experiences, or, if you want, I can show you where some of them are posted (some are posted in other forums). It is so unfortunate how many teachers are some of the worst bullies in the world. Good luck.
Very sorry to hear that this happened to your daughter. I've posted in the past (here and on other forums) that I was very frequently falsely accused of things when I was in school. The worst parts of being falsely accused are that you are completely powerless, nobody ever believes that you are innocent, and claiming innocence was often interpreted as insubordination. I am glad that you are sticking up for your daughter. Unfortunately, my parents always sided with the teacher and never helped me, even though I was frequently put in positions that somebody my then age was not equipped to handle.
I agree with the posters who suggest to start with the teacher, before escalating it to the principal. Unfortunately, principals almost always side with teachers.
About people who say that the stakes are low in 6th grade: that might depend on the district. When I was in middle school, 6th grade determined who was in honors classes the following year, which would de facto determine who was in honors and AP classes in high school. So the stakes were extremely high in 6th grade. On the other hand, middle school detention had no long term effect.
I agree with the posters who say to try to switch teachers if at all possible. Unfortunately, when a student (whether fairly or not) makes a bad impression on a teacher early on, there is absolutely nothing that the student can do to change the teacher's impression. Hopefully the 0 won't carry over to whatever teacher she transfers into.
If your district was like mine (grades in 6th grade were high stakes, detention was not high stakes), maybe you can make an agreement that your daughter will serve the detention, but if she has no further incidents for the rest of the semester, that the 0 will be expunged from her record. Perhaps later on, when no longer in the heat of the moment, the teacher will view things in a more rational matter. Perhaps in accepting the detention, you can make an attempt at speaking the teacher's language (even though you don't agree), by saying something like "You understand and accept that life isn't fair". Sometimes speaking somebody else's language is the best way to reason with them.
What I think is going on here is that many teachers dislike high achieving students who are ahead of the curriculum. That was a problem for myself when I was in a school, and I see it being a problem for your daughter. Since your daughter is a grade ahead of the other students and is noticeably smaller and younger than the other students, that makes things even tougher for her. I know that many posters will say that what I am posting is not true. But unless you were a high achieving student who experienced this, such as myself or your daughter, it is difficult to relate to. And, I'm not saying that all teachers are unfair to high achieving students, just some of them. So a teacher who posts that he/she is fair to high achieving students does nothing to help myself or your daughter, and does nothing to negate the experiences that I had and your daughter is having.
I really hope things work out for you. If you want, search my past posting history to read about some of my experiences, or, if you want, I can show you where some of them are posted (some are posted in other forums). It is so unfortunate how many teachers are some of the worst bullies in the world. Good luck.
This should not be pursued until the OP finds out what really happened.
This is one incident; it's not even clear that it was a test. Th daughter has the rest of the year to make this up.
Well, you pretty much implied so until that point. We know, you think you were oppressed.
This was a common teacher tactic when I was in school -- punish the person being cheated off along with the cheater. Didn't matter if you were totally innocent, it was "punish them all and let God sort them out" philosophy combined with "they probably did something they should be punished for anyway so it evens out."
Lord, I hated school.
Exactly! Just like, as I've posted in the past, how schools, unfortunately, punish bullying victims in addition to the bullies, and how so many people here even support that behavior.
This was a common teacher tactic when I was in school -- punish the person being cheated off along with the cheater. Didn't matter if you were totally innocent, it was "punish them all and let God sort them out" philosophy combined with "they probably did something they should be punished for anyway so it evens out."
Lord, I hated school.
You know, even in a setting where students are at desks pretty close together, it's hard to see over to the next desk without a little help.
And I'd make that teacher go through the entire story in gruesome detail in front of the principle. Nip that crap in the bud.
A ZERO AND DETENTION??? So her entire average is affected?
I had to take my kid out of high school math because his teacher "Didn't believe in IEPs". He got tutored in math at home instead.
Don't be surprised if you have to put her back in her own 6th grade age group. Seriously not worth the aggravation having a kid who deviates in any way.
Don't do that. Why give into a bully (the teacher) by giving him/her what he/she wants (your child not in the class where she belongs)?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
