My two favorites were on an achievement test. One was where I basically read the story to them, told them where they needed to insert their own sentence, and then they take ten minutes to summarize the story. On average I would get grips and complains the whole time and then three minutes into their summary they would say they were done, having only written two or three sentences. The other was the math calculation worksheet. Did you know that starting at middle school kids can’t do simple addition and subtraction problems that have more than two digit numbers in them? Apparently they don’t know how to work them without a calculator. I had one girl almost throw her pencil at me when I tried to encourage her to work a few more problems.

Honestly though, I think what may be more sad is that all these lazy kids are giving the kids that really do try a bad name. They are out there and were always a pleasure to work with, even the ones that genuinely don’t always get it, because they truly want to learn and retain the information.

Looking up the answers online, reading Coles Notes, or asking the author all amounts to the same thing – cheating.

That being said, I hated trying to answer those English class questions about theme and conflict and whatnot. And, while I never would have cheated, I could certainly see myself contacting the author one of the many times I was frustrated by an English teacher reading way too much into a novel. Sometimes I think that’s why we only read books written by dead people – so no one could confirm (or refute) the teacher’s theories

My first book has made it on to at least one summer reading list this year, but so far no one’s asked me for help. Of course, school doesn’t start for another two weeks. We’ll see if I get those emails from Alberta teens in about ten days or not! I’ll keep this link handy.

I have another creative hobby that involves making a physical product, and I can’t even count the number of times I’ve gotten emails from people (usually teenagers or very young adults) wanting a complete step-by-step tutorial. The questions aren’t just “How did you tackle this specific aspect I’m having trouble with?”, which would be delightful. They’re “Tell me how to do everything from start to finish so I don’t have to figure it out on my own.”

I either don’t respond or, more often, give some very general guidelines and urge them to experiment with different methods until they figure out something that works for them. I’m usually resisting the urge to, like you, shout at them to do some #@*#($* research. It’ll help them out more in the long run, and maybe they’ll even enjoy the process.

It seems even worse to ask for a book report, though I’m not surprised. Boohoo, school is for learning, and that takes work!