In this case, I did blab on the other students, primarily to make my case for going it alone on the next project. I suppose I agree with your students' original view about other people cheating - I don't care so long as it doesn't affect me. I was there to learn. What anyone else wants to get is up to them. When I went back to school after a hiatus, I was there to learn and get an A (Grades really didn't matter to me first time around). I consider it nearly insulting to have to report on other students. My view is it's their problem and not mine. (My daughter holds a different view here. She's already reported blatant cheating by 4 other students in one class.)
I came to school to learn a particular thing. (In fact it was a realtime internet course specifically so I could focus on learning the material and not on the other crap.) It's my only concern. If I feel a need to babysit kids, I'll take that up as a profession. Just give me what I came for and leave me be. I'd be happy enough if there were no grades at all to worry about. I'd like a brutally honest assessment at the end of the course. (I also don't think degrees should be used as proxies for licensing.)
Of course I know that the cheating of others does have an indirect affect on me. What good is a diploma with all As when everyone gets straight As? Part of the problem is the way we use college diplomas as proxies for other things.
I also disagree with the class about degrees of ethicality - or perhaps not. One might agree that ethics is binary (which I don't) and yet believe that the consequences of transgression are not equally disagreeable.
At this point we have digressed so far from the original thread that I don't recall how it started. Something about nerdliness I infer from the subject line. What I have always told my girls is this: "Nerd is what intellectually lazy people call people who study or enjoy learning. When people call you a nerd what they are really saying is 'I'm afraid of you because I think you're smarter than me.' What you have to do is not assume that you are, despite their best efforts to convince you of it."
Not that nerd can't be a term of endearment, but I'll assume that when it's spoken with a poisonous tone that it's not meant to be endearing. It seems obvious to me that these sorts of names are meant to exclude people from whatever group is making the accusation. "You can't hang out with us. You're different than we are." This at a time when children are just beginning to ask questions about who they are. "Well, I don't know who I am, but I guess I'm not one of them." Of course I've also taught them that you can't force someone to be your friend - nor can you expect everyone to like you. But you can get people to respect you if you stick to your guns - even if they don't like you.
k
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I just reviewed the thread - wow, this is an older thread!
"(One of the biggest crocks of nonsense in high school and college is the need for group projects - and particularly the utterly stupid way it's implemented in most cases.)"
I just looked back and realized this is what I wrote previously. So that's probably what started this side thread - my irritable bit of hyperbole. I do think it's implemented badly in most cases, but I don't think that group projects are necessarily a "crock of nonsense."
k
